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Illustrated  Armenia 


and  the 


Armenians 


BY  THE 


REV.  OHAN  GAIDZ^KIAN,  M.  D. 


BOSTON 

1898 


Copyrighted  by 

Ohan  Gaidzarkian 

and 

B.  H.  Aznive, 

1808. 


&2^ 


LLUSTRATED 


^gMENIA^?  ARMENIAN 


M90U120 


REV.     OHAN    GAIDZAKIAN,     M.     D. 


THE  WRITER. 

A  SKETCH   OF  HIS  LIFE  AND  OCCUPATION. 

I  was  born  January  7,  1837,  *n  Albastan  in  the  state  of 
Aleppa.  When  I  was  a  young  man,  17  years  old,  that  was  in 
year  185&  some  strangers  came  to  my  own  town  Albastan.  Af- 
ter staying  at  an  inn  for  a  few  days,  they  left  the  city,  but  they 
left  four  copies  of  the  New  Testament  and  several  religious 
pamphlets  in  their  room.  The  inn  was  kept  by  my  cousin;  sc 
he  got  those  blessed  books  and  pamphlets,  and  a  few  days  after 
that  he  presented  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament  to  me.  I 
learned  also  that  the  strangers,  who  visited  our  city,  were  mis- 
sionaries of  the  American  Board.  I  read  this  book  or  New 
Testament  always  secretly  in  some  private  place.  I  always 
kept  it  in  my  pocket,  for  fear  that  I  would  be  persecuted  for 
reading  it;  and  besides  if  I  had  read  it  in  public  it  might  have 
been  taken  from  me  and  thrown  in  the  fire,  because  in  that 
time  Armenian  patriarchs  in  Constantinople  had  given  special 
command  and  orders  to  all  Armenian  churches  all  over  Asia 
Minor  against  missionaries  and  all  their  publications  also. 
For  that  reason  nearly  two  years  I  kept  reading  my  New  Tes- 
tament, which  worked  its  wonderful  result  upon  my  heart.  I 
was  convicted  of  my  sinfulness,  repented  of  my  sins  and  found 
forgiveness  for  my  sins,  and  peace  to  my  disturbed  soul.  That 
Bible  was  the  only  means  of  my  conversion  and  subsequent 
happiness  and  blessing  of  my  life. 

After  a  few  years,  Rev.  Beebee  and  Rev.  Perkins,  Ameri- 
can missionaries  of  Marash,  had  visited  my  native  town,  Al- 
bastan, and  had  organized  the  evangelical  Armenian  church 
with  only  eight  members,  one  of  whom  was  myself.  During 
the  first  two  years  I  had  a  good  many  troubles  and  persecutions 

7 


from  my  mother,  relations  and  also  from  Armenian  friends. 
A  few  years  after  that  I  came  to  Marash  and  studied  in  the 
College  and  the  Theological  Seminary  under  the  supervision 
of  the  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  During  my  theo- 
logical season  I  married  a  Christian  young  lady,  who  is  living 
with  me  yet.  I  was  graduated  from  the  Theological  Seminary 
in  1869  and  have  been  laboring  in  the  Lord's  fields  in  Antioch, 
Kasab,  Balin  and  Adana.  For  the  first  two  years  I  preached 
in  those  places,  and  in  1872  I  had  a  call  from  the  Evangelical 
church  of  Marash.  I  was  ordained  in  that  church  the  same 
year,  in  October.  For  about  four  years  I  had  successful  pas- 
toral work  in  that  church,  and  in  1876  I  had  a  call  from  the 
Evangelical  church  at  Adana.  I  preached  at  that  place  until 
1881,  and  then  realizing  a  great  demand  for  a  medical  mission 
at  home  for  that  purpose,  I  came  to  America  about  18  years 
ago,  and  through  the  help  of  the  Rev.  Cyrus  Hamlin,  D.  D., 
and  Rev.  Dr.  Clark,  the  secretary  of  American  Board  of  For- 
eign Missions, — these  noble  men  opened  my  way  to  the  medi- 
cal department  of  the  Vermont  University  where  I  was  gradu- 
ated in  1883.  Soon  after  I  returned  home  with  better  advan- 
tages in  healing  the  sick  and  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  poor 
and  rich.  For  this  privilege  I  consider  myself  indebted  to  rhe 
American  Congregational  churches  in  this  country. 

So  how  much  I  was  glad  to  get  that  New  Testament; 
and  through  it  I  have  had  a  good  many  blessings  in  my  native 
land,  both  I  and  my  family  also. 

I  am,  as  you  will  see,  a  refugee.  I  have  with  the  greatest 
difficulty  escaped  from  Turkish  barbarism,  after  suffering  the 
greatest  outrages,  abandoning  home,  property  and  friends  in 
Armenia.  But  I  have  brought  with  me  a  large  family,  more 
than  18  months  ago;  and  have  had  much  trouble  and  very  hard 
time  always.  I  am  now  61  years  old,  not  able  to  work  out  of 
doors.  Unable  to  practice  my  profession  in  this  country,  I  re- 
sort, therefore,  to  the  only  method  of  earning  for  my  family  an 
honest  living  that  I  have  at  hand,  namely,  the  sale  of  my  books, 
and  my  Lord's  prayer  chart  in  12  different  languages,  both  of 

8 


which  were  prepared  by  myself.  I  wish  to  call  your  attention 
to  the  testimonials  of  prominent  clergymen,  professors  and 
missionaries  of  American  Board,  and  the  Foreign  Missionaries. 
The  following  few  are  selected: 

Lexington,  Mass., 

Nov.  23d,  1896. 
To  any  Christian  Minister  or  Private  Individual: 

I  wish  tointroduce  to  your  kind  regards  Rev.Ohan  Gaidza- 
kyan,  M.  D.,  an  Armenian  refugee  from  Adana,  Asia  Minor — 
or  rather,  Northern  Syria — where  he  has  been  a  successful 
physician,  and  also  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel,  among  his  people 
in  Cilicia,  for  more  than  twenty  years. 

He  can  tell  his  own  story  of  the  escape  of  himself  and  his 
family  of  seven,  and  lately  also  of  relations,  ten  in  number,  who 
arrived  from  Marseilles,  aided  by  Lady  Henry  Somerset. 

The  question  now  is  how  to  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door? 

He  has  certain  articles  and  books  to  sell.  At  the  same 
time,  he  is  anxious  to  be  acquainted  with  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
his  native  people  in  the  L'nited  States,  and  to  preach  the  Gospel 
as  he  may  come  in  contact  with  them.  He  will  answer  any 
questions  you  may  ask  about  Turkey  and  the  Massacres. 

If  you  will  kindly,  in  any  way  you  choose,  give  access  to 
your  people  he  is  hopeful  of  gaining  sufficient  to  support  him- 
self and  family,  also  to  succeed  in  his  purpose  of  Christian 
work.  I  have  known  him  for  about  sixteen  years  as  an  earnest 
worker.    I  commend  him  to  your  wise  advice. 

(Signed)     Cyrus  Hamlin, 

Ex-President  of  Robert  College  of  Constantinople. 


To  whom  it  may  Concern : 

The  bearer,  Rev.  Ohan  Gaidzakyan,  M.  D.,  I  have  known 
for  a  good  many  years  in  Asia  Minor,  as  a  preacher  and  prac- 
tising physician,  although  he  has  occupied  a  pulpit  about  three 
years  under  my  care,  namely,  in  Xeegda,  and  he  has  been  an 
able  and  always  faithful  man.  But  in  consequence  of  the  late 
troubles  in  Turkey,  he  has  with  the  greatest  difficulty  escaped 
from  Turkish  oppressions,   after  suffering  the  greatest  out- 

9 


rages.  Abandoning  home,  property  and  friends,  he  has  with 
a  large  and  dependent  family  come  to  America.  Even  now  he 
has  had  many  months  of  illness  in  his  family,  and  the  struggle 
to  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door  is  no  mean  struggle.  In  his 
efforts  to  earn  an  honorable  living  by  the  sale  of  his  beautiful 
chart  of  "Our  Lord's  Prayer"  in  twelve  different  languages, 
and  books,  I  would  gladly,  if  I  could,  enlist  the  interest  of  every 
Christian  minister  and  private  individual.  I  wish  for  him  a 
kindly  and  sympathetic  reception  and  consideration  with 
Christian  fellowship. 

(Signed)     W.  A.  Farnsworth, 

Missionary  of  the  A.  B.  C.  F.  M. 
in   Csesarea,   Asia   Minor,   Turkey. 

Woburn,  Mass.,  July  7,  1897. 


128  Wall  Street, 
New  Haven,  Conn., 

28  Oct.,  1896. 

This  will  certify  that  I  have  known  Rev.  Dr.  Ohan  Gaidza- 
kyan  for  the  past  sixteen  years.  He  is  a  graduate  of  the  Medi- 
cal Department  of  Vermont  University,  and  has  been  practis- 
ing medicine  in  Adana,  Turkish  Empire,  during  the  last  fifteen 
years.  He  has  been  reduced  to  utter  poverty  by  the  plunder- 
ing officials  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  and  has  been  obliged  to 
flee  to  this  country  with  his  family.  He  is  endeavoring  to  find 
some  way  in  which  he  can  support  his  needy  family,  and  is  anx- 
ious to  gain  such  support  in  an  honorable  and  self-respecting 
way.  I  would  bespeak  for  him  a  friendly  reception  from  all 
those  to  whom  he  appeals,  and  can  cordially  testify  to  the  entire 
integrity  of  his  Christian  character. 

(Signed)     Lewis  O.  Brastow, 
Professor  in  Yale  Divinity  School. 


To  whom  it  may  Concern: 

This  will  introduce  the  Rev.  Ohan  Gaidzakyan,  M.  D., 
who,  together  with  his  family,  was  among  the  refugees  who 

10 


escaped  with  their  lives,  but  with  the  loss  of  all  their  property, 
from  their  late  home  in  Armenia,  which  the  inhuman  Turk  has 
rendered  desolate  with  fire  and  sword.  Dr.  Gaidzakyan  is  en- 
deavoring to  support  his  family  by  the  sale  of  a  beautiful  chart 
of  "Our  Lord's  Prayer,"  in  twelve  different  languages,  pre- 
pared by  himself,  and  also  by  the  sale  of  a  small  but  very  inter- 
esting book  by  Frederick  Davis  Green,  on  the  "Armenian 
Crisis  in  Turkey." 

I  am  well  acquainted  with  Dr.  Gaidzakyan,  and  know  him 
to  be  an  earnest  Christian  man  and  one  worthy  of  assistance  in 
his  struggle  to  make  the  best  of  his  present  circumstances. 

I  bespeak  for  him  a  cordial  reception  wherever  he  may 
present  this. 

(Signed)     Judson  V.  Clancy, 

Pastor  Congregational  Church. 

West  Medford,  Sept.  14th. 


CONTENTS: 

Chapter. 

I.     Where  is  Armenia,  or  the  Land  of  Armenia? 

II.  i.  Who  are  the  Armenians?  and  the  history  of  Arme- 
nian dynasty.  2.  The  Haigazian,  the  Arshago- 
nian.  3.  The  Pakradoanian  and  the  Rupenian 
dynasties. 

III.  The  period  of  the  Armenian  subjection. 

IV.  What  was  the  religion  of  the  Armenian  nation  before 

the  converted  of  Christianity? 

V.     First  introduction  of  the  Gospel  at  Armenia. 

VI.     The  prominent  men  of  the  period,  and  the  Armenian 
literature  and  Armenian  church  form.' 

VII.  Missionary  work  among  the  Armenians  and  its  results. 

VIII.  The  Last  Horrors  to  the  Armenians  in  Turkey. 
IX.     The  Massacre  and  Martyrdom  in  Armenia. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Armenia  has  generally  been  termed  'The  cradle  of  the  hu- 
man race,"  in  view  of  the  scriptural  indication  of  it  as  the  land 
of  man's  origin.  In  fact,  the  mention  of  the  four  rivers  (Gen. 
II.,  io-n)  seems  to  point  conclusively  to  the  situation  of  the 
Garden  of  Eden  near  the  source  of  the  river  Euphrates,  which 
takes  its  rise  in  the  mountains  of  Armenia. 

Then  there  is  the  great  and  everlasting  monument,  Mount 
Ararat,  with  which  will  be  inseparably  associated  the  exceed- 
ingly ancient  name  of  Armenia,  destined,  though  the  race  itself 
be  now  threatened  with  extermination,  to  immortality. 

In  their  native  tongue  they  speak  of  their  people  as 
"Haik,"  and  of  Armenia  as  "Hayastan,"  derived  from  that 
great  ancestor  and  patriarch  who  formed  their  kingdom. 

By  foreigners  they  came  to  be  known  as  Armenians,  from 
the  name  of  King  Aram,  whose  bravery  is  fittingly  recorded 
in   these  pages. 

Armenia  can  trace  its  origin  to  a  period  three  centuries 
anterior  to  that  of  the  Jewish  nation,  inasmuch  as  Haik,  its 
founder,  who  was  fifth  in  descent  from  Noah,  was  born  2277, 
B.  C.,  whereas  Abraham's  birth  did  not  occur  till  1996  B.  C. 
Its  people,  as  a  whole,  were  the  first  to  embrace  Christianity 
and,  as  narrated  in  the  body  of  this  work,  King  Abgar  held 
communication  with  Jesus  Christ.  Throughout  the  ages  they 
have  cherished  their  Christian  belief,  in  spite  of  innumerable 
trials  and  they  still  preserve  it  unswervingly. 

So  we  find,  after  nineteen  centuries,  the  people  still  living 
in  firm  adherence  to  Christian  doctrine  and  discipline,  submis- 
sive to  their  ecclesiastical  head,  the  respected  and  beloved 
Father  Mgertich  I.,  the  catholicos  of  all  the  Armenians,  who 

13 


now  sits  on  the  very  seat  of  the  Apostles  Thaddeus  and  Bar- 
tholomew and  of  St.  Gregory  the  Illuminator. 

We  may  quote  here  a  passage  from  Mr.  F.  D.  Greene's 
work  on  "The  Armenian  Crisis  and  the  Rule  of  the  Turk," 
with  reference  to  the  adoption  of  national  religious  belief.  He 
writes:  "They  (the  Armenians)  have  the  distinction  of  being 
the  first  race  who  accepted  Christianity,  King  Dertad  receiv- 
ing baptism  in  276  A.  D.,  thirty-seven  years  before  Constan- 
tine  ventured  to  issue  even  the  Edict  of  Toleration.  Their 
martyr  roll  has  grown  with  every  century.  The  fact  that  the 
Armenian  stock  exists  at  all  today  is  proof  of  its  wonderful 
vitality  and  excellent  quality.  More  then  for  3,000  years  Ar- 
menia, on  account  of  her  location,  has  been  trampled  into  dust 
both  by  devastating  armies  and  by  migrating  hordes.  She  has 
been  the  prey  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  Xerxes,  Alexander,  and  the 
Romans,  the  Parthians,  and  Persians,  and  Byzantine,  Saracen, 
and  Crusader,  of  Seljuk  and  Ottoman,  and  Russian  and  Kurd, 
etc.  Through  this  awful  record  the  Christian  church,  founded 
by  St.  Gregory  the  Illuminator,  has  been  the  one  rallying 
point  and  source  of  strength. 


Illustrated 
Armenia  and  the  Armenians. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE   STORY   OF  ARMENIA.       WHERE   IS  ARMENIA  ? 

Having  found  out,  during  my  last  visit  to  America,  that  a 
large  majority  of  people  in  America  are  without  any  knowledge 
of  Armenia  and  its  historic  events,  and  that  they  are  anxious 
to  know  something  about  the  country,  I  have  intended  to  give, 
hereby,  a  brief  account  about  its  history. 

First  of  all,  Armenia  is  a  very  important  country  in  regard 
to  its  connection  with  the  Bible.  Armenia  is  the  cradle  of 
mankind,  and  the  venerable  mother  of  all  other  countries.. 
Our  first  parents  were  created  in  that  land.  The  beautiful 
garden  of  Eden,  which  was  planted  for  their  enjoyment,  was 
in  that  land.  It  was  in  this  garden  that  our  first  parents  had 
their  first  direct  communication  with  Jehovah.  It  was  there, 
that  after  their  disobedience,  they  offered  a  sacrifice  to  God, 
and  out  of  the  skins  of  the  sacrificed  animals  God  made  them 
clothes  and  clothed  them.  The  first  religious  service,  and  the 
first  plan  of  forgiveness  by  grace  were  instituted  in  the  garden 
of  Eden  near  its  eastern  gate  and  in  the  midst  of  seraphim  and 
cherubim  with  their  flaming  sword. 

Adam  and  his  wife,  after  their  fall,  were  driven  out  of 
the  garden  of  Eden  into  the  land  of  Armenia,  which  was  full 
of  thorns  and  thistles,  that  they  might  till  the  ground  and  thus 
provide  their  daily  bread  in  the  sweat  of  their  face. 

Our  first  mother  rocked  the  cradle  of  her  first  offspring  in 
Armenia.  Therefore  this  country  became  the  residence  of  our 
first  parents  and  the  inheritance  of  their  children. 


1 6  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

It  was  there  that  Cain  and  his  brother  Abel  were  born  and 
brought  up.  Cain  became  a  tiller  of  the  ground,  and  selected  for 
himself  the  fertile  lands  of  Armenia,  while  Abel  became  a  keeper 
of  sheep,  and  led  his  sheep  on  the  green  pastures  at  the  foot  of 
Mount  Ararat  and  watered  them  out  of  the  rivers  flowing  from 
the  garden  of  Eden. 

The  altar  upon  which  Abel  offered  sacrifice  to  God  with 
a  sincere  faith,  was  in  that  country. 

Cain  slew  his  brother  Abel  in  Armenia,  hence  the  first 
murder,  and  the  first  martyrdom  took  place  in  that  land.  On 
account  of  this  murder  Cain  left  Armenia  and  went  to  the 
land  of  Xod  in  Arabia,  situated  on  the  southeastern  direction 
of  Eden,  and  there  he  was  settled,  built  cities  and  founded  the 
land  of  Midianites. 

God,  after  Abel's  death,  gave  Adam  another  son,  named 
Seth,  to  our  first  parents,  and  after  having  many  sons  and 
daughters  born  to  them,  and  having  lived  their  nine  hundred 
and  thirty  years,  died,  and  were  buried  in  Armenia. 

It  was  in  that  land  that  Enoch  walked  with  God  for  three 
hundred  years,  and  it  was  from  there  that  with  chariots  and 
horses  of  fire  he  was  translated  to  heaven  without  tasting  death. 

Armenia  was  the  land  of  all  the  people  living  in  the  world 
during  the  first  fifteen  hundred  years  from  Adam  to  Noah. 

It  was  in  that  land  that  Xoah,  the  patriot,  was  born,  and 
for  a  period  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  was  the  preacher, 
pastor  and  father  of  the  people  of  that  land. 

The  preparations  for  the  Deluge  were  made  in  that  land, 
as  the  Deluge,  took  place  there,  mankind  having  not  yet  dis- 
persed to  other  parts  of  the  world.  One  of  the  convincing 
proofs  that  the  Deluge  took  place  in  Armenia  is  that  the 
waters  of  the  Deluge  have  left  their  remnants  in  Armenia  in 
the  form  of  the  present  Armenian  lakes  and  especially  the 
Caspian  Sea.     This  fact  cannot  be  refuted. 

According  to  the  testimony  of  the  Bible  the  mountains 
of  Ararat  are  in  the  land  of  Armenia,  and  when  the  waters 
were  abated,  the  ark  rested  upon  the  mountains  of  Ararat. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  IJ 

After  a  certain  time  in  the  ark  Noak  looked  out  of  the 
window,  looked  over  the  land  and  found  that  the  waters 
were  wholly  abated,  and  according  to  the  word  of  God  he  left 
the  ark  with  eight  persons,  who  were  his  kith  and  kin,  and 
descended  to  his  beloved  land  of  Armenia.  As  soon  as  he 
left  the  ark  he  built  an  altar  and  offered  a  sacrifice  to  God. 
Then  he  tilled  the  earth,  planted  gardens  and  vineyards,  and 
of  their  products  he  made  wine  and  drank.  It  was  Armenia 
that  produced  Noah.  He  lived  there  before  and  after  the 
Deluge.  It  is  not  reasonable  to  think  that  after  he  left  the 
ark  he  went  to  a  distant  place,  but  he  lived  where  he  was 
before;  and  after  having  sons  and  daughters  and  grand-chil- 
dren, and  living  three  hundred  and  fifty  years,  died. 

Gomer  was  the  son  of  Japheth,  the  second  son  of  Noah. 
Togarmah  was  the  son  of  Gomer,  and  Haig  was  the  son  of 
Togarmah.  Haig  was  the  first  prince  or  king  of  that  land, 
therefore  the  land  was  named  Haisdan.  He  fought  with 
Nimrod,  who  wanted  to  build  the  tower  of  Babel;  he  con- 
quered him,  and  became  the  chief  ruler  of  a  large  region. 
Haig  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Armenag,  in  whose  honor  the 
country  was  also  named  Armenia. 

It  is  very  likely  that  you  may  think  as  though  I  am  sav- 
ing these  things  as  historic  curiosities  or  as  fables.  It  is 
natural  for  you  to  say,  "Well,  here  is  an  Armenian  lunatic,  we 
don't  care  what  he  says."  It  is  all  right  if  you  think  so.  But 
in  the  way  of  proving  what  I  say  I  want  to  bring  before  you  the 
following  two  points,  and  wait  for  their  answers. 

First.  The  Garden  of  Eden  was  the  first  residence  of  our 
first  parents.  The  rivers  that  issued  from  the  Garden  bear 
the  same  old  names  to-day  as  in  the  days  of  Adam.  We  have 
them  to-day  in  the  same  position  and  with  the  same  old  names. 
I  cannot  exactly  tell  in  what  part  of  Armenia  the  Garden 
stood,  as  the  Deluge  wholly  wiped  out  the  Garden.  But 
judging  by  the  original  source  of  these  rivers  we  can  infer 
that  it  stood  on  the  east  of  Mount  Ararat.  This  leads  us  to 
say  that  the  home  of  our  first  parents  was  in  Armenia. 


l8  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

Second.  According  to  the  Bible,  God  spoke  to  Noah 
that  he  would  send  the  Deluge  to  the  world  within  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  years.  Noah  made  preparations  for  it.  It 
goes  without  saying  that  the  Deluge  took  place  where  man- 
kind was,  and,  as  I  said  before,  the  first  population  of  the 
world  was  only  in  Armenia.  Therefore  the  Deluge  took  place 
in  Armenia  and  the  ark  rested  on  the  top  of  Mount  Ararat. 
The  traces  of  the  Deluge  are  still  seen  in  the  numerous  lakes 
in  Armenia,  especially  in  the  Caspian  Sea. 

If  there  are  those  among  the  hearers  or  readers  who  have 
objections  to  these  points,  let  them  kindly  tell  them  and  I  will 
endeavor  to  answer  them. 

But  the  student  of  the  Bible  will  find  a  great  delight  in 
perusing  any  Biblical  and  historical  work,  for  the  discourses 
of  the  Assyrian,  Babylonian,  Egyptian,  Moabyan  and  Persian 
monuments  and  tablets,  with  the  decipherment  of  their  cunei- 
form inscriptions,  have  verified  much  of  Biblical  narrative, 
satisfied  the  honest  doubting  minds  and  silenced  the  idle 
cavilers.  Armenia  indeed  does  not  equally  rank  with  these 
countries  in  the  importance  of  its  discoveries,  or  in  its 
immediate  relation  to  the  land  of  the  Israelites.  Yet  Armenia 
played  an  important  role  in  the  drama  of  the  history  of  West- 
ern Asia  in  the  past,  and  who  can  tell  what  she  may  still  do  in 
the  future. 


THE    LAND    OF    ARMENIA;    IT    IS    THE    MOST    PICTURESQUE    OF 

COUNTRIES. 

The  country  of  Armenia  lies  directly  north  of  the  Mes- 
opotamia plain.  It  is  a  mountainous  country,  and  contains 
all  of  the  great  river  resources  of  Western  Asia.  The  Euphra- 
tes, the  Tigris,  the  Araxes,  Cyrus  (Kur),  the  Acampsis  and 
Holys  (called  Kizil  Irmak)  take  their  rise  in  the  highland  of 
Armenia  and  flow   into   three   different  seas,   fertilizing  the 


## 


MOUNT    ARARAT. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  19 

subjacent  countries  through  which  they  run.  Armenia  is  well 
likened  to  Switzerland  in  its  relation  to  the  Western  part  of 
Asia,  as  the  latter  is  to  Western  Europe. 

I.  Its  general  character  is  that  of  a  plateau.  On  the  north, 
Armenia  reaches  almost  to  the  Caucasian  mountains;  on  the 
west,  the  Black  sea,  Asia  Minor  and  the  Taurus  mountains; 
on  the  south,  the  bay  of  Mesopotamia,  the  upper  part  of  which 
was  included  in  the  Armenian  provinces,  "the  Noire"  of  the 
cuneiform  inscriptions;  on  the  east,  the  Caspian  sea  and 
Midia  bounded  Armenia.*  In  the  time  of  Herodotus,  Arme- 
nia must  have  been  about  550  miles  from  east  to  west,  and 
250  miles  from  north  to  south:  or  about  150,000  square 
miles.  The  country  was  divided  into  two  parts,  namely, 
Armenia  Major  and  Armenia  Minor.  The  latter  lay  to  the 
west  of  the  Euphrates;  the  former  was  again  divided  into 
fifteen  provinces.  But  at  the  time  of  its  greatest  extent 
and  power — when  its  people  were  great  and  its  kings  were 
great,  long  before  Alexander's  conquest — Armenia  covered 
about  500,000  square  miles,  and  stretched  from  the  Black 
sea  and  the  Caucasus  on  the  north  to  Persia,  and  Syria  on 
the  south;  from  the  Caspian  and  a  much  smaller  Persia  on 
the  east,  to  Cilicia  and  far  beyond  the  Holys  (Kizil  Irmak) 
on  the  west,  but  also  including  old  Midia. 

Armenia  is  a  highland  from  4,000  to  7,000  feet  above 
the  level  of  the  sea.  Its  surface  is  undulating,  with  beauti- 
ful dells  and  hills,  with  fertile  valleys  and  forest-covered 
mountains,  with  fecundant  and  extensive  plains  and  pasture 
lands,  and  lofty  snow-capped  mountains  with  glittering  snowy 
peaks  piercing  the  clear,  blue  sky.  The  highest  mountain  of 
Western  Asia  is  situated  at  the  centre  of  Armenia.  It  is 
Mount  Masis  of  the  natives,  and  Mount  Ararat  of  the  Euro- 
peans,  which   is   of   unsurpassing   beauty,   magnificance   and 


♦Pliny  agrees  with  the  Armenian  historians  in  bringing  the  eastern 
boundary  to  the  Caspian  sea,  and  Herodotus  makes  Armenia  border  on  Cap- 
padocia  and  Cilieia  on  the  west,  stating  that  "this  stream  (the  Holy  river) 
rises  in  the  mountainous  country  of  Armenia." 


20  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

grandeur.  No  traveller  has  yet  ever  seen  it  and  not  spoken 
of  it  in  admiration.  "The  impression  made  by  Ararat  upon 
the  mind  of  every  one  who  has  any  sensibility  of  the  stupen- 
dous works  of  the  Creator,  is  wonderful  and  overpowering; 
and  many  a  traveller  of  genius  and  taste  has  employed  both 
the  power  of  the  pen  and  of  the  pencil  in  attempting  to  por- 
tray this  impression.  But  the  consciousness  that  no  descrip- 
tion, no  representation  can  reach  the  sublimity  of  the  object 
thus  attempted  to  be  depicted,  must  prove  to  the  candid  mind, 
that,  whether  we  address  the  ear  or  eye,  it  is  difficult  to  avoid 
the  poetic  in  expression  and  the  exaggerated  in  form,  and 
confine  ourselves  strictly  within  the  bounds  of  consistency 
and  truth." 

"Nothing  can  be  more  beautiful  than  its  shape,  more 
awful  than  its  height.  All  the  surrounding  mountains  sink 
into  insignificance  when  compared  to  it.  It  is  perfect  in  all 
its  parts;  no  hard,  rugged  feature,  no  unnatural  promi- 
nence; everything  is  in  harmony,  and  all  combined- to  render 
it  one  of  the  sublimest  objects  in  nature." 

Mount  Masis  or  Ararat  is  situated  on  the  wide  and  fertile 
plain,  which  is  watered  by  the  Araxes  with  its  tributaries. 
This  river  traverses  the  plain,  running  on  the  north  of  the 
mountain,  and  fertilizes  the  plain  which  it  dotted  by  numer- 
ous villages.  This  plain  is,  in  fact,  a  plateau  about  7,000 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  The  mountain  still  rises 
over  10,000  feet  higher  than  the  plain,  thus  making  its  total 
height  over  17,000  feet  from  the  sea  level.  It  is,  therefore, 
perpetually  covered  with  snow  ice  that  dazzles  in  splendor 
the  eyes  of  the  spectators.* 

Mount  Ararat  and  other  mountains  have  been  visited  at 
times  by  violent  earthquakes  and  eruptions.  Though  Mount 
Masis  itself  is  formed  of  volcanic  rocks,  no  record  of  its  vol- 
canic activities  is  preserved   for  us  by  the  ancients.     How- 

*Sir  Layerd  saw  the  mountain  from  a  distance  of  about  145  miles  on 
the  south  side  of  it;  and  a  German  traveller  from  the  Caucasian  mountains 
on  the  north,  a  distance  of  150  miles. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  21 

ever,  a  German  traveller  makes  mention  of  his  seeing  a  ter- 
rifying sight  more  than  a  century  ago;  and  says,  "Some  dis- 
tant southern  volcanoes,  or  Ararat  itself  (the  terrible  gorge 
of  which,  distant  from  Caucasus  in  a  straight  line  150  miles, 
one  can  hardly  look  at  without  shuddering;  and  which,  on 
the  13th  of  January  and  22d  of  February,  1783,  began  again 
to  throw  out  smoke  and  fire)  must  have  burned  the  top  of 
Caucasus,  and  thrown  upon  it  those  mineral  ashes." 

In  the  year  1840,  on  the  20th  of  June,  a  terrible  earth- 
quake shook  the  foundation  of  the  mighty  mountain.  The 
monastery  of  St.  James  and  the  villages  of  Aicuri  were  buried 
in  the  ruins;  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  villages,  about  one 
thousands  in  number,  were  buried  alive.  The  towns  of 
Nakhjevan  and  Erevan  did  not  escape  the  calamity.  In  both 
of  these  towns  hundreds  of  houses  were  thrown  down; 
and  thousands  of  human  beings,  unexpectedly,  within  a  few 
minutes  were  swept  out  of  their  earthly  existence. 

Undoubtedly  such  calamities  must  have  been  repeated 
in  the  past;  but  we  are  not  informed  concerning  them  by 
the  ancient  visitors.  But  sad  it  is  still  to  hear  such  news  as 
the  following: 

"Paris,  May  17th,  (1891),  The  Dix  Neuwine  Sircle, 
states  that  commercial  advices  have  been  received  at  Mar- 
seilles from  Trebizond  to  the  effect  that  a  new  volcano  has 
appeared  in  Armenia  at  the  summit  of  Mount  Nimrod,  in 
the  District  of  Van,  vomiting  forth  flames  and  lava.  The 
villages  at  the  base  of  the  mountain  have  been  destroyed, 
and  many  persons  are  said  to  have  been  killed  or  injured. 
The  fugitives  are  camping  outside  the  range  of  destruction. 
They  are  almost  entirely  destitute,  and  the  greatest  misery 
prevails  among  them." 

The  earliest  name  of  Armenia,  by  which  it  was  known 
to  the  ancient  Hebrew  and  Assyrian  writers,  was  Ararat. 
We  are  told,  in  connection  with  the  Deluge,  that  when  the 
waters  of  the  great  flood  subsided,  "the  ark"  of  Noah  "rested 
upon  the  mountains  of  Ararat."    The  language  of  the  Bible 


22  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

is  both  accurate  and  precise: — not  upon  Mount  Ararat,  as 
it  is  generally  and  incorrectly  said  and  written  by  many — but 
upon  the  mountains  of  Ararat. 

The  author  of  the  book  of  Genesis  is  accurate  in  his  ex- 
pression and  precise  in  his  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  Ararat 
is  the  name  of  the  country  upon  whose  mountains  the  tm- 
pest-tossed  vessel  of  the  patriarch  rested.  Whether  his 
knowledge  was  the  result  of  Divine  inspiration,  or  is  a  his- 
torical fact,  preserved  and  handed  down  to  the  author's  time, 
we  cannot  tell.  The  accuracy  of  the  statement,  however, 
which  stood  the  criticisms  of  centuries,  and  especially  this 
age  of  criticism,  has  a  rightful  claim  to  its  acceptance  by  all. 

The  following  is  a  specimen  of  such  absurdities  and 
blunders  so  often  ignorantly,  or  by  carelessness,  committed. 

A  traveller,  well  known  in  this  country,  writes  to  one 
of  the  daily  papers  as  follows:  "At  daylight  we  were  in  a 
broad  flat  valley,  lying  between  the  greater  and  the  lesser 
Caucasus.  The  latter,  to  our  south,  lifted  not  far  off,  from 
twelve  to  fifteen  thousand  feet,  and  were  clothed  in  snow. 
In  the  far  distance  were  others.  I  saw  a  sharp,  conical 
burnished  peak,  which  I  took  to  be  Ararat.  I  could  not  help 
thinking  what  a  hard  time  the  mighty  line  of  living  things 
had  when  marching  by  twos,  male  and  female,,  from  those 
cold,  bleak  heights  down  into  the  plains  below,  after  the 
great  flood  had  subsided;  and  what  a  time  good  old  Noah 
must  have  had  to  keep  some  of  his  warm-blooded  pets  from 
freezing  on  that  lofty  sixteen-thousand-feet-high  pinnacle. 
What  a  pity  our  theologians  do  not  boldly  preach  that  the 
Bible  is  a  mighty  system  of  truth,  but  that  its  truths  came 
to  us  clothed  in  Oriental  legend  and  fable: — that  the  truth 
is  there,  pure  and  undefiled,  as  the  grain  is  pure  and  uncon- 
taminated  by  the  chaff  in  which  it  is  housed,  instead  of  try- 
ing to  make  a  reasoning  world  swallow  the  chaff  for  solid 
kernels." 

Undoubtedly  our  honorable  traveller  will  claim  to  belong 
to  that  "reasoning  world''  of  which  he  speaks.     But  if  all 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  2$ 

who  make  up  that  "reasoning  world"  will  reason  as  he  does, 
namely,  take  that  erroneous  expression  of  the  common  peo- 
ple, and  call  that  highest  mountain  peak — which  is  over  sev- 
enteen thousand  feet  from  the  sea  level — Mount  Ararat,  and 
add  to  this  error,  or  comparatively  modern  designation, 
another,  namely,  that  the  ark  of  Xoah  rested  upon  this  moun- 
tain; then  turn  around  and  condemn  the  Bible  as  an  "Orien- 
tal legend  and  fable,"  it  must  be  said  that  this  kind  of  "rea- 
soning" of  the  so-called  "reasoning  world/'  is  absurdity,  and 
not  reasoning  at  all. 

Ararat  is  mentioned  in  three  other  books  of  the  Old 
Testament,  beside  the  above,  in  connection  with  the  flood: 
2  Kings  xix:  37;  Isaiah  xxxvii:  38;  and  Jeremiah  li:  27. 
Xone  of  these  passages  speak  of  it  as  a  mountain,  but  as  a 
country.  The  first  two  passages,  identical  in  import,  speak 
of  the  escape  of  Adrammelch  Sharezer  "into  the  land  of 
Ararat,"  after  having  committed  the  crime  of  assassinating 
their   own   father,    Sennacherib. 

The  prophet  Jeremiah  summons  the  forces  of  Armenia 
to  combine  with  the  Medes  to  overthrow  Babylon,  in  these 
words : 

"Set  ye  up  a  standard  in  the  land,  blow  the  trum- 
pet among  the  nations,  prepare  the  nations  against  her 
(Babylon);  call  together  against  her  the  kingdoms  of  Ararat, 
Minni  and  Ashchenaz. 

"Prepare  against  her  the  nation  with  the  things  of  the 
Medes."    Li:  27,  28. 

The  following  is  from  an  inscription  of  Assur-Xatsir- 
Pal,  the  King  of  Assyria;  and  the  date  of  his  reign  is  assigned 
by  Professor  Sayee,  from  B.  C.  883  to  B.  C.  858. 

"The  cities  of  Khatu,  Khartaru,  X"estum,  Irbiri,  Mitqia, 
Arzonia,  Tela  (and)  Khalua,  the  cities  of  Qurkhi,  which  in 
sight  of  the  mountains  of  U'su,  Arua  (and)  Arardhi  mighty 
mountains  are  situated,  I  captured."  Professor  Sayee 
remarks  that  "Arardhi  seems  to  be  the  earliest  form  of  Arar- 


24  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

dher  (of  later  Assyrian  inscription),  the  Biblican  Ararat." 
(Records  of  the  Past,  Vol.  2,  page  140.) 

These  passages  from  the  Bible  and  the  Assyrian  inscrip- 
tion, show,  beyond  doubt,  that  Ararat  was  the  earliest  name 
of  Armenia,  and  it  was  not  the  name  of  mountain;  and 
finally,  that  the  ark  of  Noah  rested  upon  the  mountains  of 
Ararat  or  Armenia.  Thus  the  history  of  the  human  race 
began  anew  from  the  land  of  Ararat. 

II.  It  has  been  said  that  the  great  rivers  of  Western  Asia 
take  their  origin  from  the  highlands  of  Armenia:  Euphrates, 
Tigris,  Pison,  Araxes  and  many  others  from  the  jewels  of 
her  crown.  These  rivers  penetrate  to  every  corner  of  the  land, 
traverse  many  hundreds  of  miles  to  give  life  to  the  field,  the 
vineyards  and  the  orchards,  to  turn  the  mills.  The  river 
Acampus  of  the  ancients  identified  by  some  with  the  Pison 
of  the  Bible,  has  its  sources  from  the  southeast  of  Erzurun. 
It  receives  several  streams  and  with  beautiful  winding  flows 
into  the  Black  Sea.  About  the  Arapes,  according  to  some 
the  Gihon  of  the  Bible,  there  is  an  interesting  statement  in 
an  Armenian  history.  "Aramais  (King  of  Armenia)  built  a 
city  of  hewn  stone  on  a  small  eminence  in  the  plain  of  Ara- 
gay,  and  near  the  bank  of  ariverbefore  mentioned,  which 
had  received  the  name  of  Gihon. 

The  new  city,  which  afterwards  became  the  capitol  of 
his  Kingdom  he  called  Armatvir  after  his  name,  and  the 
name  of  the  river  he  changed  to  Arat,  after  his  son  Arast." 

The  river  Arakes  is  fed  and  swollen  by  many  streams, 
rivulets  and  brooks,  which  run  from  the  sides  of  numerous 
glens,  through  picturesque  ravines,  and  mingle  with  it. 
Along  its  tortuous  course  it  carries  a  great  fertility,  and  finally 
mingles  with  no  less  than  the*  famous  river  Cyrus  (Ker)  and 
pours  itself  into  the  bosom  of  the  Caspian  Sea. 

The  two  rivers  of  Armenia  are  the  Euphrates,  and  Tigris, 
whose  identity  with  those  mentioned  in  connection  with  the 
Garden  of  Eden  is  beyond  doubt.  Both  of  these  rivers  take 
their  origin  from  the  highlands  of  Armenia. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  2$ 

The  Euphrates  from  the  springs,  which  are  not  very  far 
from  Mount  Misis  (Ararat  so-called),  takes  a  westward  course 
along  the  Taurus  mountain  chain  on  the  northern  side 
of  the  mountain.  Near  Malatiyeh  the  river  turns  towards 
the  southeast  and  approaches  the  source  of  the  Tigris,  but 
within  a  few  miles  distance.  From  this  point  onward,  with 
a  southeasterly  course,  these  rivers  flow  and  finally  they  unite 
and  pour  into  the  Persian  Gulf. 

The  student  of  the  ancient  Babylonian  and  Assyrian 
history  and  civilization  knows  what  fertility  these  rivers  car- 
ried along  their  course  through  the  Mesopotamian  plain  and 
hold  with  numerous  canals  and  channels,  they  irrigated  the 
land  of  the  Great  Empires  and  became  the  means  of  commer- 
cial intercourse  with  the  neighboring  nations. 

The  claim  of  Armenia  to  the  possession  within  its 
bosom  of  the  Garden  of  Eden  ought  not  to  disputed.  No 
country,  indeed,  has  attempted  to  contend  with  Armenia  for 
this  honor.  Her  natural  beauty,  salubrious  climate,  her 
exuberant  fertility,  the  fragrance  of  her  flowers,  the  variety 
of  her  singing  birds,  above  all  her  mountainous  bosom  and 
overflowing  breasts  from  which  the  mighty  water  run  down 
on  her  sides  and  fill  the  great  channels  of  those  rivers  which 
fertilize  the  subjacent  counties  and  replenish  the  three  ad- 
jacent seas,  all  these  do  justify  her  claim  and  render  it 
almost  a  historical  fact  that  Armenia  was  the  cradle  of  infant 
humanity.  "Ancient  traditions  place  the  province  of  Eden 
in  the  highest  portion  of  Armenia,  anciently  called  Ararat, 
and  it  appears  to  furnish  all  the  conditions  of  the  Mosaic 
narrative." 

If  variety  makes  beauty,  Armenia  furnishes  such  a  va- 
riety, making  her  one  of  the  finest  countries  in  the  world; 
not  only  has  she  those  gigantic  mountains  with  their  snow- 
crowned  heads  looking  down  upon  the  clouds  that  envelop 
their  skirts  while  they  mock  the  ambient  air  and  the  wind, 
not  only  has  she  hundreds  of  murmuring  streams  and  rip- 
pling brooks  gliding  along  the  sides  of  thousands  of  hills 


26  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

which  swell  those  kingly  rivers  and  cause  them  to  overflow 
their  banks,  but,  she  also  has  some  beautiful  lakes,  like  jew- 
els set  in  their  respective  caskets.  The  lake  of  Sevan,  which 
lies  between  the  Arapes  and  the  Cyrus  rivers,  occupying  the 
centre  of  a  fertile  plain  of  the  northern  part  of  Armenia,  is 
called  "Street  lake,"  in  contradistinction  to  the  others,  which 
are  salt-water  lakes.  Lake  Sevan,  near  the  city  of 
Erevan,  is  now  in  the  Russian  provinces  of  Armenia.  The 
lake  of  Ormi  or  Orumiah,  lies  in  the  southern  part  of  the 
country,  now  in  the  provinces  of  Armenia. 

These  lakes  and  some  others  are  surrounded  by  roman- 
tic views  and  poetic  scenery,  but  the  lake  of  Van,  surpass- 
ing them  in  size,  in  importance,  and  splendor,  causes  us  with 
her  to  linger  a  little  longer. 

The  area  of  Lake  Van  is  about  fourteen  hundred  square 
miles,  its  surface  is  over  five  thousand  feet  high  above  the 
sea.  It  is  embosomed  at  the  centre  of  a  verdant  and  rich 
plain,  which  plain  also  is  encircled  by  an  exceedingly  beau- 
tiful, romantic,  undulating  mountain  chain,  which  culminates 
on  the  north  in  the  sublime  monarch  of  mountain  of  West- 
ern Asia,  Mount  Massis  (Ararat). 

The  beauty  of  Lake  Van  and  its  surroundings  always 
did  and  will  more  intensely  enchant  the  poets  and  artists 
who  are  more  fortunate  and  enjoy  the  beauty  of  nature  more 
than  the  rest  of  us.  The  following  is  the  language  of  a  dis- 
tinguished explorer:  "A  range  of  low  hills  now  separated 
us  from  the  plain  and  lake  of  Van.  We  soon  reached  their 
crest  and  a  landscape  of  surpassing  beauty  was  before  us. 
At  our  feet,  intensely  blue,  and  sparkling  in  the  rays  of  the 
sun,  was  the  inland  sea,  with  sublime  peak  of  the  Subbon 
Dagh  (Mountain)  mirrored  in  its  transparent  waters.  The 
city  (of  Van)  with  its  castle-crowned  rock  and  its  embattled 
walls  and  towers  lay  embowered  in  orchards  and  gardens. 
To  our  right  a  rugged  snow-capped  mountain  opened  mid- 
way into  an  ampitheatre  in  which  amid  lofty  trees  stood  the 
Armenian  Convent  of  Seven  Churchs.     To  the  west  of  the 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  2^ 

lake  was  the  Nimrod  Dagh,  and  the  highlands  nourishing 
the  sources  of  the  great  rivers  of  Mesopotamia,  the  hills 
forming  the  foreground  of  our  picture  were  carpeted  with 
brightest  flowers,  over  which  wandered  the  flocks,  while  the 
gaily  dressed  shepherds  gathered  around  us  as  we  halted  to 
contemplate  the  enchanting  scene."* 

Many  a  scene  like  the  above  has  enchanted  the  foreign 
traveler  and  inspired  the  native  authors  and  poets,  and 
caused  the  wandering,  expatriated  sons  and  daughters  of 
Armenia  to  remember  her  former  majestic  beauty  and  splen- 
dor, but  marred  by  the  vicissitudes  of  the  ages  and  especially 
under  the  iron  heel  of  the  present  tyrant,  her  indescribable 
misery,  and  weep  like  Jeremiah,  "Mine  eye  runneth  down 
with  rivers  of  water  for  the  destruction  of  the  daughter  of  my 
people."    (Lamentations,  3-48.) 

III.  The  climate  of  Armenia  is  the  very  healthiest  in  the 
world;  I  do  not  say  one  of  the  healthiest,  but  the  very 
healthiest.  The  climate  is  excellent  all  the  year  round,  and 
though  the  winters  are  severe  and  much  of  the  country  is 
covered  with  snow,  yet  on  account  of  the  elevation,  which  is 
from  four  thousand  to  seven  thousand  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  sea,  and  in  latitude  350  to  420,  or  say  from  North 
Carolina  to  Massachusetts.  It  might  easily  have  been  under- 
stood that  the  climate  of  Armenia  cannot  be  mild  in  winter, 
on  account  of  the  altitude  of  the  country,  which  is  from  four 
thousand  to  seven  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 

In  general  it  is  very  healthy,  but  in  winter  the  cold  is 
severe,  and  it  lasts  from  the  middle  of  October  until  the  be- 
ginning of  May.  But  the  air  is  dry,  pure  and  agreeable  always 
in  the  whole  year,  a  preventative  of  disease,  and  conducive 
to  languity.  The  dread  disease,  consumption,  does  not  ex- 
ist there,  while  dyspeptics,  if  any  are  to  be  found,  must  have 
been  imported.  The  perfect  type  of  physical  vigor  is  to  be 
seen  there. 

In  the  valleys  the  weather  is  a  good  deal  milder  and  very 

*  Layard's  "  Nineveh  and  Babylon,"  pages  333-4. 


28  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

pleasant.  The  summer  is  short,  but  warm  and  dry;  this 
especially  is  so  in  certain  valleys,  which  are  far  away  from 
the  reach  of  the  sea  breeze,  too  much  enclosed  by  high  moun- 
tains and  too  deep  for  the  mountain  breeeze,  for  neither  is  it 
uniformly  long,  nor  is  the  degree  of  warm  weather  the  same 
all  over  the  country.  Generally  the  people  of  Armenia  in 
all  the  ages  are  tall,  powerful,  ruddy  cheeked,  full  of  endur- 
ance and  energy,  shrewd  and  honest  too.  They  are  longer 
lived  than  any  other  people  of  countries.  I  know  a  good 
many  people  in  Armenia  lived  from  80  to  125  years  of  age. 
They  are  full  of  life  and  they  are  greatly  enjoyed  in  that 
country.  The  most  of  the  American  missionaries  in  Armenia 
would  be  sure  to  echo  these  words.  A  returned  missionary 
gave  a  striking  testimony  to  this  effect.  He  was  addressing 
and  lecturing  in  this  country  as  follows:  —  "Before 
I  became  a  missionary,  I  had  very  poor  health;  most  of  my 
family  died  of  hereditary  consumption,  and  I  was  attacked  by 
it.  My  house  physicians  strongly  protested  against  my  be- 
coming a  missionary,  saying  that  if  I  went  to  a  foreign  land 
I  would  grow  worse,  and  probably  die  there,  but  I  paid  no  at- 
tention to  this;  I  presumed  they  were  right,  but  I  was  deter- 
mined to  go  anyway,  and  if  I  must  die,  to  die  in  my  chosen 
work.  When  I  offered  myself  to  the  American  Board,  I  was 
allotted  to  Armenia,  and  thither  I  went.  My  disease  disap- 
peared and  now  I  am  as  healthy  as  any  missionary  in  the  world. 
You  see  how  stout  and  vigorous  I  look,  and  I  do  not  expect 
to  die  soon.  But  I  feel  sure  that  if  I  had  stayed  in  America  to 
save  my  life,  I  should  have  lost  it  before  this  time."  He  is  still 
living  in  Armenia,  and  I  hope  will  live  to  be  over  a  hundred, 
as  many  of  the  natives  do  there. 

The  reader  will  smile  at  all  this  as  the  patriotic  boastful- 
ness  of  an  Armenian,  and  say,  perhaps,  that  he  can  make  as 
fabulous  declarations  for  his  land,  wherever  he  may  be;  but 
such  claims  cannot  be  substantiated  by  records  and  personal 
observations  as  these  for  Armenia  can.  Take  the  Bible ;  some 
of  the  patriarchs  lived  to  be  600,  700,  800 — one  even  969 ;  if  in- 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  29 

deed  he  ever  died  a  natural  death;  some  were  taken  up  to  heaven 
without  knowing  death;  and  all  these  long  lives,  as  will  be 
shown,  were  lived  in  Armenia.  God's  judgment  was  good. 
He  did  not  create  man  in  America,  Europe,  or  India,  or  any- 
where but  in  Armenia.  He  came  down  there  from 
Heaven,  planted  the  Garden  of  Eden  there,  and  from  the  dust 
of  that  land  created  the  first  man.  When  the  race  had  become 
sinful  and  only  Noah's  family  were  preserved,  the  ark  was  not 
brought  to  rest  on  the  Rockies,  the  Alps,  or  the  Himalayas, 
but  on  Ararat  in  Armenia. 

The  natural  resources  in  Armenia  are  very  rich. 
The  mineral  wealth  of  Armenia  is  very  great;  but  like  the 
other  potential  riches  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  it  profits  nobody, 
not  even  the  greedy  despot,  whose  word  is  death.  Gold,  sil- 
ver, copper,  iron,  and  minor  metals,  besides  marble  and  other 
beautiful  stones,  are  present  in  abundance. 

The  reader  might  well  have  anticipated  that  a  mountain- 
ous country  might  possess  some  other  valuable  things  beneath 
the  surface.  Such  an  anticipation  is  decidedly  justifiable 
when  we  remember  the  fact  that  the  mines  of  Armenia  are 
rich,  numerous  and  varied. 

Traces  of  old  gold  mines  are  found  midway  between 
Trebizond  and  Erzerum.  Some  even  think  that  the  locality 
of  "Ophir,"  from  whence  King  Solomon  fetched  gold  to  decor- 
ate the  temple,  was  in  this  region.  It  may  be  interesting  to 
some  to  mention  that  the  ancient  river  Acampsis,  identified  by 
some  with  the  Pisom  of  the  Bible,  "which  compasseth  the 
whole  land  of  Havilah,  where  there  is  gold,"  does  really  run 
through  this  part  of  the  country.  About  three  miles  from 
Marsahan  is  a  mountain  caller  Tarshan  Dagh  (rabbit  moun- 
tain), rich  in  gold;  another  in  central  Turkey  is  a  mountain 
called  Baalgar  Dagh,  among  the  Taurus  mountains  very 
rich  in  gold  and  many  years  since,  are  used  by  Turkish  Em- 
pire. 

There  are  very  rich  silver  and  copper  mines  in  the  vicinity 
of  Harput  (Harpoot),  the  copper  mines  alone  annually  yield 


30  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

two  million  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds.  There 
are  rare  mines  of  sulphur,  sulphuret  of  lead,  antimony,  and 
silver.  The  mines  of  iron  and  coal  are  found  in  abundance, 
but  the  coal  mines  are  entirely  neglected  and  the  iron  and 
other  mines  are  very  poorly  operated.  There  is  a  little  town 
situated  among  the  Tauraus  mountains  called  Zeitoon;  about 
ten  miles  from  Zeitoon  is  a  mountain  called  Beraut  Digh, 
rich  in  soft  and  abundant  iron  mines.  The  people  of  Zeitoon 
almost  live  through  that  iron  mine. 

The  mineral  springs,  hot  and  cold,  at  various  places 
with  their  peculiar  curative  powers,  have  become  the  "Beth- 
esdes"  of  the  invalids,  and  are  frequented,  like  the  places  of 
pilgrimage,  by  those  who  suffer  anyq  ailment  and  are  able  to  re- 
pair to  such  restorative  resorts.  Rock  salt  and  salt  springs 
also  abound  in  Armenia.  They  are  especially  inexhaustible 
in  the  vicinity  of  Moosh.  A  salt  stream,  whose  springs  are 
from  the  salt  rock,  which  would  bring  a  good  income  in  the 
hands  of  a  wise  governor,  unprofitably  flows  into  and  mingles 
with  the  waters  of  the  Euphrates. 

The  country  has  all  the  old  fertility  which  made  Asia 
Minor  under  the  Byzantine  Empire  the  garden  of  the  world, 
till  the  Turks  half  turned  it  into  a  desert,  as  they  do  every  spot 
accursed  by  their  presence. 

Such  a  variety  of  climate  combined  with  a  naturally  fertile 
soil  will  produce  a  vegetation  rich  in  quantity  and  splendid 
in  quality.  There  are  indeed,  a  very  few  large  forest  and 
timber  lands  left  on  account  of  their  being  inaccessible  to  the 
people  and  for  want  of  good  roads.  The  government  is  en- 
tirely indifferent,  but  in  cultivating  or  protecting  the  people 
who  would  cultivate  such  forest  trees  for  the  two-fold  use  of 
them  as  timber  and  fuel.  Consequently  the  people  suffer  very 
much  for  the  want  of  these,  especially  is  this  true  in  certain  dis- 
tricts. 

But  such  vegetations  as  wheat,  barley,  cotton,  tobacco 
and  grapes,  and  every  kind  of  fruits  are  almost  unexcelled  in 
quality.     The  matermilons    raised  on  the  banks    of  the  Eu- 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  3 1 

phrates  and  the  Tigris  are  the  largest  and  sweetest  of  their  kind; 
two  melons  are  sometimes  a  camel's  load.  It  is  impossible 
for  a  family  to  use  the  whole  of  such  a  melon,  which  has  to  be 
cut  up  and  sold  in  pieces.  The  grapes,  either  fresh  or  in  the 
shape  of  wine  or  raisins  and  dried  as  raisins  exceed  in  size  the 
plumpest  grapes  of  other  lands.  Nearly  everything  is  raised 
or  grows  wild  in  Armenia  which  is  to  be  had  in  the  Northern 
or  Southern  States  of  America,  though  of  course,  each  country 
has  some  things  peculiar  to  itself.  The  products  of  the  North 
are  paralleled  by  those  of  the  rugged  picturesque  highlands  of 
North  Turkish  and  Russian  Armenia,  with  their  cold  snowy 
winters,  short,  hot  summer,  and  mild  intervening  season;  those 
of  the  South  find  their  counterparts  from  the  rich  upland  val- 
leys, or  the  lowlands  plains  needing  irrigation,  of  Kurdistan  and 
Persian  Armenia,  with  its  semi-tropical  climate,  and  alterna- 
tions of  wet  and  dry  seasons.  The  Indian  corn  and  oats  and 
rice  are  raised,  and  sugar  is  made  in  the  Persian  port.  In  the 
fields  and  gardens  you  can  find  not  only  the  wonderful  mel- 
ons I  have  just  spoken  of,  but  pumpkins  and  squashes,  lettuce 
and  egg  plant,  and  indeed  most  of  the  vegetables  that  come 
to  an  American  table.  As  to  fruits,  all  that  you  know  we 
know  also,  only  of  finer  flavors.  Asia  Minor  is  the  original 
home  of  the  quince,  the  apricot,  and  the  nectarine,  and  I  be- 
lieve of  the  peach  too;  while  our  apples,  pears,  and  plums  are 
incomparable,  the  muscot  apple  of  Amassea  are  exceptional 
even  there.  After  eating  them,  one  hardly  wonders  that 
Adam  and  Eve  could  not  resist  the  temptation  of  doing  the 
same,  at  the  cost  of  innocence  and  Eden.  The  pears  of  Mal- 
atiah  keep  them  company ;  and  the  quince  grows  sometimes  as 
large  as  a  man's  head.  Another  fruit  equally  important  is  the 
mulberry  for  silk-worms.  The  olive  andfig  are  cultivated  and 
also  grow  wild,  and  filberts  and  walnuts  can  be  gathered  any- 
where in  the  woods,  as  well  as  orchards;  of  course  not  the 
American  "hickory  nuts,'1  but  the  "English  walnuts"  of  the 
groceries. 

The  fertility  of  the  country  is  unquestionable  when  we 


32  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

remember  the  fact,  that  not  only  the  country  is  very  old  and 
therefore  more  or  less  would  naturally  decline  in  its  produc- 
tivity, but  the  method  of  cultivation  itself  is  also  very 
old,  started  by  Adam,  Noah  and  Abraham,  and  their 
immediate  descendants,  compelled  by  the  necessities  of  life. 

It  has  been  said  ancient  traditions  place  the  province  of 
Eden  in  Armenia.  Such  a  statement  itself  might  have  aroused 
an  expectation  in  the  mind  of  the  reader  to  know  something 
about  the  environment  and  conditions  which  will  give  a  parad- 
isaical aspect  to  a  place.  The  flowers  of  Armenia  will,  not 
a  little,  contribute  to  this  aspect,  which,  though  growing  wild 
and  uncultivated,  are  of  rare  beauty,  fragrance  and  hue,  and 
hardly  known  to  the  Europeans  and  American.  Though  one 
of  them  has  a  Latin  scientific  name,  no  plant  of  it  has  ever 
been  in  Europe,  and  by  no  manner  of  contrivance  could  we 
succeed  in  carrying  one  away.  This  most  beautiful  produc- 
tion was  called  in  Latin  bananea,  or  philipea  coccinea,  a  para- 
site on  absinthe  or  wormwood.  This  is  the  most  beautiful 
flower  conceivable;  it  is  in  the  form  of  a  lily,  about  nine  to 
twelve  inches  long,  including  the  stalk;  the  flower  and  the 
stalk  and  all  the  parts  of  it  resemble  crimson  velvet;  it  has 
no  leaves;  it  is  found  on  the  side  of  the  mountains  near 
Erzerum,  often  in  company  with  Morans  orentalis,  a  remark- 
able kind  of  thistle  with  flowers  all  up  the  stalk,  looking  and 
smelling  like  the  honeysuckle.  An  iris  of  a  most  beautiful 
flaming  yellow  is  found  among  the  rocks,  and  it,  as  well  as 
all  the  more  beautiful  flowers,  blooms  in  the  spring,  soon  after 
the  melting  of  the  snow. 

In  regard  to  the  singing  birds  of  Armenia  we  do  not 
attempt  to  say  much,  but  undoubtedly  must  they  have  per- 
formed a  noble  service,  by  their  melodious  music  in  that  great 
assembly  of  all  creation,  gathered  to  witness  the  nuptials  of 
our  innocent  parents. 

Many  of  the  children  of  Adam  and  Eve  even  now  do  not 
have  any  other  musicians  than  the  same.  The  birds  in  general 
are  numerous,  belonging  to  various  tribes,  "which,"  says  the 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  33 

author  above  quoted,  "in  thousands  and  millions,  would  re- 
ward the  toil  of  the  sportsman  and  the  naturalist  on  the  plains 
and  mountains  of  the  highland  of  Armenia." 

Nothing  was  more  delightful  and  amusing  to  the  writer, 
when  a  child,  than  to  watch  the  armies  of  birds  flying  towards 
the  north  with  spring,  or  south  in  the  autumn  in  a  beautiful 
array,  led  by  a  general,  as  it  were,  until  they  were  lost  out  of 
sight  in  the  clear  and  bright  Oriental  sky;  nor  even  now  would 
it  give  him  little  delight,  if  it  were  possible,  to  retire  into  one 
of  those  solitary  watchmen's  cottages  in  the  vineyards  and  or- 
chards of  the  East  and  listen  to  the  most  melodious  anthems 
of  those  songsters,  who  were  then,  it  seems  to  him  now,  vying 
more  with  each  other  to  render  their  praises  acceptable  to 
their  Creator  than  many  of  our  noted  singers  in  the  magnifi- 
cent churches  and  cathedrals. 

The  animals  that  are  generally  found  in  a  temperate 
climate  like  the  climate  of  the  Northern  states  are  also  com- 
mon in  Armenia.  In  the  days  of  old  the  Armenian  horses 
were  as  famous  as  are  the  Arabian  horses  now.  The  rich 
pastures  of  Media  and  Armenia  furnished  excellent  horses 
for  the  Medo-Persian  army.     See  also  (Ezekiel  xxvii,  14). 

According  to  the  rule  of  Sultan  Hamid  II.  there  is  no 
land  of  Armenia  at  all  in  that  district. 

The  present  Sultan  forbids  the  use  of  the  name  altogether, 
and  insists  on  the  district  being  termed  Kurdistan,  or  called 
by  the  names  of  its  vilayets,  Diarbekr,  Van,  Erzroom,  Harpoot, 
etc.  Many  maps  do  not  have  the  name  Armenia  at  all.  But 
the  reader  knows  and  we  know  the  name  of  Armenia  has  been 
used  more  than  four  thousand  years  to  that  district;  at  the  same 
time  some  of  the  ancient  cities  of  Armenia  are  still  in  existence, 
however,  not  in  their  former  magnificence,  and  some  are  in 
complete  ruins. 

Among  the  former,  Van,  Amid,  now  Diarbekr,  Erevan, 
Malatiyeh,  Palu,  and  Manazghert  mieht  be  mentioned;  among 
the  latter,  Armavir,  Ardashad,  Yalarshabad,  Dicranaghert,  Ani 
and  others  are  mentioned.     There  are  vet  other  cities,  some  of 


34  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

them  not  of  equal  antiquity  with  some  of  the  above  named, 
but  of  great  importance,  both  in  the  past  and  in  the  present 
time.  These  are  Kars,  Erzroom,  or  Erzerum,  Moosh,  Bitlis, 
and  Karpert  (Harpoot). 

The  ancient  Armenia  is  now  divided  among  three  powers: 
The  northern  part,  from  Botoum  on  the  Black  Sea  to  Baker  on 
the  Caspian — the  river  Araxes  being  the  boundary  to  near 
Alt.  Ararat — belong  to  Russia;  the  southeastern  course  of  the 
river  of  Araxes  from  near  Alt.  Ararat  to  Persia.  The  western 
from  Alt.  Ararat  to  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Kizil-Irmak  and  the 
whole  western  part  of  Asia  Minor,  which  is  larger  than  the 
other  two,  is  under  the  Turkish  Empire,  consequently  some  of 
the  cities  mentioned  above  are  in  the  Russian  provinces  of 
Armenia,  but  the  most  of  them  are  in  Turkish  Armenia. 

The  English  traveler,  Sandys,  who  visited  the  Turkish 
Empire  over  two  centuries  and  a  half  ago,  has  described  with 
truth  and  eloquence  the  unhappy  condition  of  the  regions  sub- 
ject to  its  destructive  despotism  in  the  following  words: 

These  countries,  once  so  glorious  and  famous  for  their 
happy  estate,  are  now,  through  vice  and  ingratitude,  become 
the  most  deplorable  spectacles  of  extreme  misery.  The  wild 
beasts  of  mankind  have  broken  in  upon  them  and  rooted  out 
all  civility ;  and  the  pride  of  a  stern  and  barbarous  tyrant,  pos- 
sessing the  thrones  of  ancient  dominion,  who  aims  only  at  the 
height  of  greatness  and  sensuality,  hath  reduced  so  great  and 
goodly  a  part  of  the  world  to  that  lamentable  distress  and  ser- 
vitude under  which  it  now  faints  and  groans,  those  rich  lands 
at  this  present  time  remain  waste  and  overgrown  with  bushes, 
and  receptacles  of  wild  beasts,  of  thieves  and  murderers;  large 
territories  dispeopled  or  thinly  inhabited;  goodly  cities  made 
desolate,  sumptuous  buildings  became  ruins,  glorious  temples, 
either  subverted  or  prostituted  to  impiety;  true  religion  dis- 
countenanced and  opposed;  all  nobility  extinguished,  no  light 
of  learning  permitted,  no  virtue  cherished;  violence  and  rapine 
exulting  over  all,  and  leaving  no  security,  save  an  abject  mind 
and  unlooked  for  poverty." 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  35 

What  an  immense  wealth  yet  lies  in  the  entrails  of  Armenia; 
a  ruler  that  loves  the  well-being-  of  his  subject,  and  loves  to 
know  both  the  condition  of  the  country  and  of  the  people,  in- 
stead of  struggling  for  existence  in  extreme  poverty  would 
render  both  his  government  wealthy  and  his  people  happy, 
having  in  possession  such  a  country  as  Armenia  and  other 
parts  of  the  empire.  But  Turkish  rulers  have  been  destitute 
in  prudence  and  have  gloried  in  cruelty,  deceitfulness  and  ex- 
action. Had  the  long  expected  and  delusively-promised  re- 
forms of  the  Turkish  government  been  fulfilled,  then  would 
we  have  unfolded  this  wealth  to  the  world. 

Several  years  ago,  when  the  missionaries  of  the  American 
Board  were  organizing  the  college  for  the  education  of  the 
Armenian  young  people  at  Harpoot,  now  so  bloodily  famous, 
they  named  it  Armenia  college;  but  the  present  sultan  for- 
bade it  on  the  ground  that  there  was  no  longer  an  Armenia, 
and  the  use  of  the  name  would  encourage  the  Armenians  to 
revolt.  The  missionaries  were  forced  to  change  the  name  to 
Euphrates  college.  If  any  Turkish  subject  uses  the  word  of 
Armenia  he  is  fined  and  imprisoned;  if  it  is  used  in  any  book 
the  book  is  confiscated  and  the  author  banished  or  killed.  The 
study  of  Armenian  history  is  forbidden  to  the  Armenians; 
they  must  be  kept  in  ignorance  about  their  own  land  so  that 
many  of  them  do  not  know  where  Armenia  was  or  what  Ar- 
menia is.  A  letter  directed  to  any  person  or  place  in  Ar- 
menia will  never  reach  its  destination;  for  the  Turkish  postal 
authorities  recognize  no  such  address.  There  is  still  another 
cause  for  the  widespread  ignorance  concerning  Armenia. 
These  are  the  unhappy  effects  of. the  Turkish  Empire  on  these 
once  so  glorious  and  famous  countries,  and  after  two  cen- 
turies and  a  half  this  description  is  still  literally  true. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  ARMENIANS — WHO  ARK   THE   ARMENIANS? 

The  primal  origin  of  the  Armenians  will  be  found  in  the 
Scriptures  of  Genesis  x,  3-10:  from  Togarmah.  Among  the 
Armenian  writers,  calling  the  people  by  the  appellation  of 
"Togarmah  Doon,  the  house  of  Togarmah,"  as  also  by  the 
prophet  Ezekiel  xxvii.,  14,  was  and  still  is  very  common. 

Togarmah,  the  son  of  Gomer,  the  son  of  Japheth,  the  son 
of  Xoah. 

The  prophet  Ezekiel  mentions  this  name  twice,  not  as  a 
mere  name  of  the  patriarch,  but  as  a  nation  descended  from 
him,  and  known  by  the  appellation,  "of  the  house  of  Togar- 
mah." The  prophet  does  this  in  connection  with  other  names 
as  representatives  of  different  nations.  The  third  son  of 
Gomer  is  Togarmah;  the  people  descending  from  him  are 
call  "the  house  of  Togarmah/'  Ezekiel  xxvii.,  14,  where  they 
are  named  after  Javan,  Tubal  and  Meshech,  as  bringing 
horses  and  mules  to  the  mart  of  Tyre;  and  xxxviii.,  6,  where  it 
appears  after  Gomer  as  a  component  of  the  army  of  Gog. 

Togarmah  had  a  son  named  Haig  or  Haik,  as  the  ances- 
tor of  the  Armenians,  and  they  call  themselves  "Haikian"  or 
"Haigazian"  from  him;  and  the  land  of  Armenia  is  called 
"Haiasdan"  or  "the  land  of  Haik." 

"Togarmah,"  the  people  thus  designated,  are  mentioned 
by  the  prophet  Ezekiel.  In  the  former  passage  as  trading  in  the 
fairs  of  Tyre  with  horses  and  mules;  in  the  latter,  as  about  to 
come  with  Gomer  out  at  the  north  quarter  against  Palestine. 
Neither  passage  does  much  towards  fixing  a  locality,  but  both 
agree  with  the  hypothesis,  which  has  the  support  alike  of  ety- 
mology and  of  national  tradition,  that  the  people  intended  are 


DYNASTY    OF    ARMENIAN    FLAGS. 


HAIK. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  37 

the  ancient  inhabitants  at  Armenia.  Grimm's  view  that  Togar- 
mah  is  composed  of  two  elements,  "Taka,"  which,  in  Sanskrit, 
is  "tribe,"  or  "race,"  and  "Armah,"  (Armenia),  may  well  be  ac- 
cepted. The  Armenian  tradition  which  derived  the  Haikian 
race  from  Torgom,  as  it  can  scarcely  be  a  coincidence,  must 
be  regarded  as  having  considerable  value.  Now,  the  existing 
Armenians,  the  legitimate  descendants  of  those  who  occupied 
the  country  in  the  time  of  Ezekiel,  speak  a  language  which 
modern  ethnologists  pronounce  to  be  decidedly  Indo-Euro- 
pean; and  thus,  so  far,  the  modern  science  confirms  the  Scrip- 
tural account. 

Haik,  the  son  of  Torgarmah,  like  the  rest  of  the  descend- 
ants of  Noah,  was  in  pursuit  of  a  new  location  for  himself  and 
his  posterity,  and  had  descended  with  the  multitude  into  the 
country  of  Shinar  of  Mesopotamia.  Here  the  people,  for  fear  of 
another  destructive  flood,  attempted  to  build  a  high  tower,  "the 
Tower  of  Babel."  Haik  and  his  sons  distinguished  them- 
selves by  wisdom  and  virtue  in  the  erection  of  this  tower;  but 
ambitious  Belus  for  supremacy,  yea  even  requiring  homage  to 
him  image,  became  too  repulsive  to  virtuous  Haik  and  his 
sons.  Haik  therefore  left  the  plains  of  Shinar  with  his  large 
family  and  returned  to  the  home  of  his  nativity,  the  land  of 
Ararat,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  lake  of  Van ;  or  the  plain  of  Moosh. 
Belus,  on  hearing  that  Haik  had  withdrawn  from  his  author- 
ity, pursued  him  with  a  large  force.  Haik,  when  he  heard  that 
Belus  was  coming  against  him,  mustered  the  male  members 
of  his  family  and  those  who  were  willingly  under  his  author- 
ity, armed  them  as  well  as  he  was  able  and  set  out  to  meet  the 
enemy. .  He  charged  his  little  army  to  attack  that  part  of  the 
enemy's  force  where  Belus  commanded  in  person,  "for,"  said 
he,  "if  we  succeed  in  discomfiting  that  part  the  victory  is  ours; 
should  we,  however,  be  unsuccessful  in  our  attempt,  let  us 
never  survive  the  misery  and  disgrace  of  a  defeat,  but  rather 
perish,  sword  in  hand,  defending  the  best  and  dearest  right  of 
reasonable  creatures — our  liberty."  Then  did  the  brave  leader 
move  on  with  his  force,  and  faced  the  invaders.    After  a  bloodv 


38  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

conflict  Belus  fell  by  an  arrow  discharged  at  him  by  Haik, 
The  army  of  Belus,  soon  after  this,  was  dispersed. 

Haik  was  a  powerful  warrior,  and  the  founder  of  the  Ar- 
menian kingdom,  which  began  2350  B.  C,  and  ended  with 
Levan  VI.,  1375  A.  I).,  thus  lasting  3,725  years,  though  with 
intervals  of  extinction.  Their  own  kings  did  not  always  reign 
in  Armenia.  Sometimes  other  nations  ruled  over  it  by  way  of 
compensation:  sometimes  the  Armenians  ruled  over  other  na- 
tions. The  people  never  call  themselves  Armenians,  or  their 
country  Armenia:  they  use  the  name  simply  for  the  sake  of 
f<  ireigners.  The  Armenians,  therefore,  call  themselves  after  his 
name.  *  Haik,"  and  the  country  "Hayasan." 

Haik,  following  the  manner  of  the  ancient  patriarchs, 
founded  towns  and  villages,  and  after  a  long  life  died  in  peace. 
Whatever  its  origin,  it  is  certain  that  the  Armenians  are  a  very 
ancient  nation,  as  ancient  as  the  Assyrians  or  Persians.  [I  have 
seen  an  article  upon  this  question  in  the  "Independent"  of 
March  5,  1896,  which  was  written  by  Rev.  James  D.  Barton, 
D.  D.,  secretary  of  the  American  Board.  I  would  like  to  ask 
from  the  author  the  privilege  of  using  that  article  as  follows  in 
my  pamphlet. — Tin-:  Author.] 

According  to  Armenian  histories,  the  first  chief  of  the 
Armenians  was  Haik,  the  son  of  Togarmah,  the  son  of  Gomer, 
the  son  of  Japheth,  the  son  of  Noah.  It  is  an  interesting  fact 
that  the  Armenians  to  this  day  call  themselves  Haik,  their  lan- 
guage, "Haiaren,"  and  their  country,  "Haiasdan."  "Armenia" 
and  "Armenian"  are  words  which  cannot  be  spelled  with  Ar- 
menian characters  or  easily  pronounced  by  that  people.  That 
name  was  given  them  and  their  country  by  outside  nations,  be- 
cause of  the  prowess  of  one  of  their  kings,  Aram,  the  seventh 
from  Haik.  Probably  this  people  are  the  resultant  of  strong 
Aryan  tribes  overrunning  and  conquering  the  country  now 
occupied  by  the  Armenians,  and  which  was  then  possessed  by 
primitive  Turanian  populations.  Subject  to  the  vicissitudes  of 
conquest  and  invasion,  the  borders  of  Armenia  have  fluctu- 
ated.    Lake  Van  has  always  been  within  the  kingdom,  and  the 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  39 

capital  has  usually  remained  during  their  highest  prosperity  at 
the  city  of  Van.  They  have  had  a  long  line  of  kings  of  valor 
and  renown.  They  were  an  independent  nation,  but  with  vary- 
ing degrees  of  power,  until  A.  D.  1375,  when  they  became  com- 
pletely a  subject  people.  Since  that  time  their  country  has 
been  under  the  government  of  Russia,.  Persia,  or  Turkey,  far 
the  larger  portion  being  under  Turkey.  During  the  years  of 
their  greatest  prosperity,  from  600  B.  C.  to  about  400  A.  D., 
this  nation  played  a  prominent  part  in  the  wars  of  the  Assyrians, 
Medes,  Persians,  Greeks  and  Romans. 

There  are,  perhaps,  from  two  and  a  half  to  three  millions  of 
Armenians  in  Turkey,  Russia  and  Persia.  In  the  absence  of 
accurate  records  we  must  be  content  with  a  mere  estimate, 
based  upon  observations  and  inadequate  government  returns. 
In  an  extended  district  they  comprise  a  majority  of  the  inhabi- 
tants. They  are  everywhere  mingled  with  and  surrounded  by 
Kurds  and  Turks.  The  Armenians  are  forbidden  to  carry  or 
possess  arms,  under  severe  penalties,  where  the  other  races  are 
armed,  many  of  them  by  the  government.  Armenian  histories 
relate  that  soon  after  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  Abgar,  the  King 
of  Armenia,  with  his  court,  accepted  Christianity.  This  was 
short  lived,  however;  but  in  the  third  century  A.  D.,  under  the 
leadership  of  Gregory  the  Illuminator,  the  Armenian  people  as 
a  nation  became  Christian.  This  was  the  first  nation  to  adopt 
Christianity  as  a  national  religion.  The  church  was  called 
"Gregoriai:r  by  those  outside,  but  ,,LoosavorchaganM  by  the 
Armenians,  the  word  meaning,  "Illuminator,"  the  name  given 
to  Gregory.  The  Grcgorians  and  Greeks  worked  in  harmony 
in  the  great  councils  of  the  Church  until  451.  At  the  fourth 
Ecumenical  Council,  which  met  at  Chalcedon  that  year,  the 
Gregorian  church  separated  from  the  Greek  upon  the  so-called 
Monophysite  doctrine,  the  former  accepting  and  the  latter  re- 
jecting it.  Since  then  the  Gregorian  church  has  been  distinctly 
and  exclusively  an  Armenian  national  church. 

The  organization  and  control  of  the  church  is  essentially 
Episcopal.    The  spirit^1  head  is  a  catholicos;  but  in  addition  to 


40  ILLUSTRATED     ARMKXIV 

him  there  is  a  patriarch,  whose  office  bears  largely  upon  the 
political  side  of  the  national  life,  as  related  to  the  Ottoman  gov- 
ernment. There  are  three  of  the  former,  residing  in  order  of 
their  importance  at  Echmiazin,  in  Russia;  at  Aghtamar,  on 
an  island  in  Lake  Van;  and  at  Sis.  in  Cilicia,  each  with  his  own 
diocese.  There  are  two  of  the  patriarchs,  residing  at  Constan- 
tinople and  Jerusalem.  There  are  nine  grades  of  Armenian 
clergy.  The  Bible  was  translated  into  their  language  in  the 
middle  of  the  fifth  century.  (  hving  to  a  change  in  the  spoken 
tongue,  the  Bible  became  a  dead  book  to  the  people,  although 
it  was  constantly  read  at  their  church  services.  As  the  priests 
scarcely  ever  understood  the  Scripture  which  they  read,  Chris- 
tian doctrines  were  kept  alive  by  oral  teachings;  but  the  re- 
straint upon  life  which  pure  Christianity  exercises  was  largely 
removed.  They  blindly  accept  the  Bible  as  the  word  of  God. 
They  have  many  large  and  fine  churches,  some  of  which  are 
several  hundred  years  old.  This  nation  has  suffered  great  per- 
secutions for  its  faith  during  the  last  eleven  centuries;  but  with 
wonderful  patience  and  endurance  has  clung  to  the  old  beliefs 
and  forms  of  worship. 

Mission  work  was  begun  among  them  for  the  purpose  of 
introducing  into  the  church  the  Bible  in  the  spoken  language  of 
the  people,  in  order  that  its  teachings  might  reform  the  church 
and  the  nation.  The  Armenian  nature  is  essentially  religious. 
Born  into  the  church,  its  customs,  traditions  and  teachings  have 
large  influence  over  the  life.  Although  much  of  their  teaching 
and  many  of  their  customs  are  based  upon  mere  traditions,  and 
are  not  in  accord  with  the  enlightened,  educated  Christianity  of 
the  west,  nevertheless,  the  fact  that  during  the  last  few  months 
thousands  among  them  have  deliberately  chosen  death,  with 
terrible  torture,  to  life  and  Islam  shows  that  among  them  there 
exists  much  essential  Christian  faith.  It  must  not  be  over- 
looked that  the  old  church  has  been  greatly  enlightened  and  ele- 
vated by  the  mission  schools  and  colleges  planted  in  their  coun- 
trv,  and  the  evangelistic  work  carried  on  among  them.  They, 
too,  in  imitation  of  the  evangelical  branch  of  their  nation,  have 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  41 

organized  schools,  accepted  the  Bible  in  the  spoken  language, 
and  introduced  into  their  church  worship  many  of  the  methods 
of  Christian  instruction  used  by  the  Christian  church  all  over 
the  world. 

The  Armenians'  greatest  enemy  outside  of  Islam,  is  their 
incompatibility  of  character.  They  cannot  agree  among  them- 
selves. "Haik  voch  miapan"  ("Armenians  cannot  agreev)  is 
one  of  their  many  proverbs.  This  is  their  national  weakness. 
Owing  to  this  fact,  which  led  to  internal  jealousies  and  bicker- 
ings and  strife  during  the  period  of  their  most  successful  na- 
tional life,  they  were  weakened,  then  disrupted,  and  finally 
completely  subjugated.  This  characteristic  has  constantly  ap- 
peared in  the  management  of  their  ecclesiastical  affairs,  and  the 
Turks,  in  order  to  control  them,  have  made  great  use  of  this 
weakness,  playing  one  party  off  against  another.  The  source 
of  this  national  weakness  lies  in  their  jealousy  of  imagined  or 
actual  rivals.  Suspicious  of  each  other,  and  jealous  of  compe- 
tition, the  race  has  been  broken  up  into  factions,  which  has 
rendered  impossible  anything  like  a  national  growth  or  unity, 
and  has  made  it  easy  for  the  ruling  Turk  to  keep  them  in  com- 
plete subjection.  A I  any  times  the  Armenians  themselves  have 
been  the  most  effective  instrument  in  the  hands  of  their  diplo- 
matic rulers  in  checking  national  progress.  Owing  to  this  fact, 
if  for  no  other  reason,  a  plan  for  a  general  revolution  upon  the 
part  of  the  Armenians  could  lead  only  to  exposure  and  failure. 
The  most  intelligent  have  from  the  first  fully  understood  this, 
and  have  deprecated  any  agitation  which  must  necessarily  end 
in  disaster.  The  advocates  of  revolution  have  almost  invariably 
been  men  of  narrow  views  and  no  leadership  in  the  nation  at 
large,  who  have,  outside  of  Turkey,  organized  rival  societies  to 
collect  money  from  credulous  Armenians  to  the  credit  of  their 
own  personal  bank  account,  and  for  the  injury  of  their  protest- 
ing people  in  Turkey.  This  same  characteristic  would  make  it 
impossible  to-day  for  the  Armenians  to  be  self-governing. 

The  Armenians  are  the  most  intelligent  of  all  the  peoples 
of  eastern  Turkey.     In  western  Turkev  their  only  rivals  are  the 


42  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

Greeks.  They  far  outclass  their  Mohammedan  rulers  in  the 
desire  for  general  and  liberal  education,  and  in  their  ability  to 
attain  to  genuine  scholarship.  During  the  last  twenty  years 
few  institutions  of  higher  education  in  the  United  States  and  in 
England  have  failed  to  have  Armenians  among  their  pupils, 
and  the  rank  which  they  have  usually  taken  is  most  creditable 
to  the  race. 

The  popularity  of  Euphrates  College,  in  Horput,  and  of 
Central  Turkey  College,  at  Aintab,  whose  students  are  almost 
exclusively  Armenians,  as  well  as  Anatolia  College,  at  Marso- 
van,  and  Robert  College,  at  Constantinople,  which  have  many 
Armenians  among  their  students,  taken  together  with  the  fact 
that  large  sums  are  paid  each  year  by  the  people  for  the  educa- 
tion of  their  sons  and  daughters,  all  prove  that  in  addition  to 
the  ability  to  advance  mentally  there  is  a  strong  desire  upon 
the  part  of  the  Armenians  for  general  enlightenment.  Bi-lingual 
from  childhood,  and  many  of  them  tri-lingual,  they  learn  lan- 
guages easily.  Their  general  tendency  is  to  prefer  metaphysi- 
cal studies,  being  inclined  rather  to  the  speculative  in  their 
manner  of  thought.  They  have  taken  readily  to  the  idea  of 
female  education,  and  the  three  colleges  for  girls  in  Turkey  are 
among  her  most  popular  evangelical  institutions.  These  are 
largely  patronized  by  the  Armenians.  This  nation  has  pro- 
duced many  well-known  scholars,  which  fact,  taken  together 
with  the  general  high  standard  of  scholarship  among  her  stu- 
dents, and  the  eager  desire  prevalent  among  the  people  for  a 
liberal  education,  shows  that  the  race,  intellectually,  compares 
favorably  with  the  most  favored  nations  of  the  world. 

The  Armenians  are  the  farmers,  artisans,  tradesmen,  and 
bankers  of  eastern  Turkey.  They  have  strong  commercial  in- 
stincts and  mature  ability,  and  being  industrious  withal  have 
made  much  progress  in  all  these  lines.  In  spite  of  the  heavy 
restrictions  placed  upon  them  by  the  Turkish  government,  in 
the  form  of  general  regulations  and  excessive  taxes,  in  some 
parts  of  Turkey  the  leading  business  operations  are  largely  in 
their  hands.     In  some  setions  of  the  villages  of  Harput  and 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  43 

Diarbekir,  twenty-five  years  ago,  the  land  was  owned  almost 
entirely  by  Moslems,  but  rented  and  farmed  by  the  Armenians. 
At  that  time  the  Armenians  were  not  permitted  to  possess,  to 
any  extent,  the  soil.  Lack  of  industry  upon  the  part  of  the 
Mohammedans,  and  the  acquirement  of  property  upon  the  part 
of  the  Armenians,  largely  by  emigration  to  the  United  States, 
have  led  the  Turks  to  sell  their  ancient  estates  to  Armenians, 
who  are  supplied  with  funds  from  their  friends  who  are  working 
in  this  country.  The  careful  management  of  the  property  thus 
acquired  led  to  the  advancement  of  the  proprietor-farmer,  while 
the  one  from  whom  the  land  was  purchased  was  left  without  an 
income. 

While  the  Turks  in  many  of  the  principal  cities  where 
Armenians  dwell  own  most  of  the  shops,  the  renters  are  largely 
Armenians.  An*  intelligent  Turkish  governor  once  told  the 
writer  that  if  the  Armenians  should  suddenly  emigrate  or  be 
expelled  from  eastern  Turkey,  the  Moslem  would  necessarily 
follow  soon,  as  there  was  not  enough  commercial  enterprise  and 
ability,  coupled  with  industry,  in  the  population  to  meet  the 
absolute  needs  of  the  people. 

The  Armenian,  while  industrious  and  naturally  inclined  to 
follow  in  the  footsteps  of  his  father,  takes  very  readily  to  a  new 
trade.  When  emigrating  to  foreign  countries,  he  easily  adapts 
himself  to  his  new  surroundings,  and  does  creditable  service  in 
almost  any  line  of  work.  This  adaptability,  together  with  a 
tendency  to  hold  on  to  a  line  once  begun,  has  given  a  stable 
character  to  the  nation. 

The  Armenian  is  domestic  in  his  habits  and  aspirations, 
and  not  military.  In  the  early  history  of  the  race  we  do  not 
find  much  writing  of  their  conquests.  They  did  not  go  outside 
of  their  borders,  as  a  general  thing,  to  conquer  their  neighbors. 
While  not  lacking  in  physical  courage  and  prowess  in  war 
when  called  to  defend  their  country  against  invasion,  they 
did  not  seek  to  conquer.  Sometimes  in  driving  back  an  ag- 
gressive foe  they  carried  the  war  into  his  territory,  and  levied 
upon  it  for  injuries  received.     Yet  it  never  seems  to  have  been 


44  ILLUSTRATED      ARMENIA 

their  ambition  to  be  a  great  nation,  ruling  over  conquered 
races.  Their  chief  ambition  appears  to  have  been  to  possess  in 
quiet  their  beloved  fatherland,  "hairenik,"  where  they  might 
worship  God  according  to  the  demands  of  their  own  national 
church.  To-day  they  have  no  desire  of  conquest  or  ambition 
to  rule.  Their  greatest  wish  is  to  be  permitted  to  enjoy  without 
fear  the  blessing  of  their  simple  domestic  life,  together  with  the 
privileges  of  worship  and  education,  and  the  opportunity  to 
possess  in  peace  the  fruits  of  their  frugal  industry.  The  Ar- 
menian loves  Ins  children,  and  is  most  closely  attached  to  his 
home.  When  he  emigrates,  it  is  only  for  the  purpose  of  trade 
and  gain.  His  heart's  affection  centres  in  the  old  home,  to 
which  he,  if  unprevented,  will  return  to  rejoin  his  loved  ones. 
In  all  his  native  land  the  city  or  village  of  his  birth  is  the  spot 
on  earth. 

The  Armenians  are  most  simple  and  frugal  in  their  man- 
ner of  life.  Uncomplaining  and  generally  cheerful,  they  con- 
tinue their  occupations,  following  in  the  footsteps  of  their 
fathers  without  desire  for  change.  The  son  of  the  carpenter  is 
a  carpenter,  content  with  the  adze  and  saw;  and  the  shoemaker 
sticks  to  his  last  without  a  thought  of  being  anything  else  so 
long  as  that  trade  serves  him.  The  home  life  is  patriarchal,  the 
father  ruling  the  household,  and  the  sons  bringing  their  wives 
to  the  paternal  roof.  In  the  event  of  the  death  of  the  father, 
the  eldest  son  takes  his  place  at  the  head  of  the  family.  The 
aged  are  held  in  high  esteem,  and  their  counsel  sought  and 
honored.  The  women  occupy  inferior  positions,  the  nation 
copying  many  customs  in  regard  to  them  from  the  Turks 
among  whom  they  live.  They  are  not  an  immoral  race,  but  are 
inclined  to  drink  wine,  which  is  a  cheap  product  of  their 
country. 

Thus  we  have  a  race  old  in  national  history  when  Alexan- 
der invaded  the  East,  and  with  its  star  of  empire  turning  tow- 
ard decline  when  the  Caesars  were  at  the  height  of  their  power; 
a  nation  not  mingling  in  marriage  with  men  and  women  of 
another  faith,  with  blood  now  as  pure  in  its  descent  from  the 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  45 

undiscovered  ancestors  of  nearly  three  decades  of  centuries 
ago  as  the  Hebrews  stand  unmixed  with  Gentile  blood;  with  a 
language,  a  literature,  a  national  church,  distinctively  its  own; 
and  yet  a  nation  without  a  country,  without  a  government, 
without  a  protector  or  a  friend  in  all  God's  world.  This  is  not 
because  it  has  sinned,  but  because  it  has  been  terribly  sinned 
against;  not  because  of  its  intellectual  or  moral  or  physical 
weakness,  but  because  it  has  little  to  offer  in  return  for  the 
service  which  the  common  brotherhood  of  man  among  nations 
should  prompt  the  Christian  nations  of  the  world  to  render. 


THE  STORY   OF  ARMENIAN   DYNASTIES. 

The  First:    The  Haigazian,  from  2350  to  328  B.  C. 

The  Armenian  dynasties  are  divided  into  four  special 
branches  or  periods.  The  first  is  the  Haigazian  dynasty.  This 
dynasty  began  2,350  years  before  Christ,  and  ended  in  the  time 
of  Alexander  the  Great,  328  B.  C.  No  other  recorded  dynasty 
has  so  long  an  unbroken  succession.  As  already  mentioned, 
Haig  was  the  founder  of  the  Armenian  kingdom.  He  can 
scarcely  be  called  a  King,  because  in  his  time  there  was  not  a 
great  Armenian  nation.  It  was  rather  a  tribe,  and  Haig  was 
chief  or  governor.  His  position  was  like  that  of  Abraham, 
what  would  now  be  called  a  sheikh ;  and  like  Abraham  he  was 
a  worshiper  of  the  true  God. 

Haig's  son  Armen  succeeded  his  father,  and  greatly  en- 
larged the  kingdom.  He  subdued  a  large  district  northeast  of 
Mount  Ararat,  and  built  a  city  and  town  of  hewn  stones  there, 
near  the  banks  of  the  rixer  Araxes.  He  named  the  city  after 
himself  Armanir,  and  made  it  the  capital  of  the  government. 
It  is  most  likely  the  name  Armenia  comes  from  him.  Some  re- 
cent foreign  writers  have  the  impudence  to  say  that  there  was 
no  such  King,  but  that  his  name  was  made  up  to  account  for 
that  of  Armenia;   but  the  same  records  which  tell  us  of  Haig 


46  ILLUSTRATED     A R  M  E X  1  A 

tell  us  of  bis  son.  After  Armen  we  find  his  son,  Armaiss,  was 
the  suecessor  of  his  father  Armen,  or  Armenag.  The  son  of 
Aramais  was  Amassia,  who,  soon  after  the  decease  of  his  father, 
t<  >ok  the  lead  of  the  government.  Our  historians  tell  us  that  it 
was  Amassia  who  gave  the  name  Masis,  after  himself,  to  that 
magnificent  and  huge  mountain  (Mount  Ararat,  so  called). 
Hannah  mounted  the  throne  of  his  father  Amassia  after  the 
hitter's  departure  from  this  life.  Aram,  or  Armanag,  about 
2000  B.  ( '..  the  son  and  successor  of  Hannah  towers  among  the 
monarchs  of  the  first  period  of  the  Armenian  history.  He  was, 
like  King  David,  a  great  warrior  and  conqueror.  One  of  the 
notable  Kings  is  Aram,  the  seventh  in  succession,  and  the 
greatest  of  Armenian  conquerors.  He  raised  and  drilled  an 
army  of  50,000  men,  whose  efficiency  and  his  own  military  skill 
and  energy  are  proved  by  his  invading  and  conquering  Media. 
He  then  invaded  Assyria,  and  conquered  a  part  of  that  country. 
Xext,  he  marched  westward,  and  subjugated  some  of  the  east- 
ern portion  of  Asia  Minor,  inhabited  by  the  Greeks.  The  latter, 
Cappadocia,  along  the  Halys  or  Kizil-Irmak,  Aram  named  the 
Hayasdan,  translated  by  the  Romans  as  "Armenia  Minor/' 
which,  oddly  enough,  in  later  times  became  Greater  Armenia, 
or  Armenia  proper.  After  the  long  and  glorious  reign  of  Aram, 
the  country  slowly  came  into  a  subordinate  condition  to  the 
Assyrian  empire,  though  the  Kings  of  the  Haikian  dynasiy 
continued  to  rule  over  Armenia;  but  they  were  very  much 
overshadowed  when  the  Assyrian  empire  was  at  the  zenith  of 
her  glory. 

It,  however,  should  be  understood  that  Armenia  was  not 
completely  subjugated;  for  every  ruler  of  a  district  was  a  King 
by  himself,  and  on  account  of  the  inaccessibility  of  some  dis- 
tricts an  entire  subjugation  of  a  country  like  Armenia  was  an 
impossibility  in  those  days.  Tiglath-pileser  I.,  the  King  of 
Assyria  (i  1 10-1090  B.  C.)  unconsciously  confesses  in  his  famous 
inscription,  which  contains  the  most  of  his  great  achievements, 
that  some  of  these  districts  never  knew  subjugation. 

The  enormous  growth  of  the  Armenian  kingdom  under 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  47 

Aram  or  Armanag,  and  its  conquest  of  part  of  Assyria,  excited 
the  alarm  of  the  Assyrian  King  Ninos.  Not  feeling  strong 
enough  to  engage  in  open  warfare  with  him,  he  thought  to 
compass  his  destruction  by  winning  his  friendship,  and  then 
putting  him  out  of  the  way;  and  as  a  first  step  he  sent  him  a 
costly  jeweled  crown.  The  intrigue  failed,  however,  and  Aram 
lived  to  a  great  age,  reigning  fifty  years. 

Aram  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Ara,  called  "Ara  the  Beau- 
tiful." The  fame  of  his  beauty  went  abroad  through  the  world. 
The  Assyrian  Queen,  Semiramis,  was  so  enchanted  by  the  sight 
of  his  person  that  she  fell  madly  in  love,  and  proposed  marriage 
to  him,  but  Aram  refused  her.  This  military  Amazon  was  not 
to  be  balked  so.  She  resolved  to  marry  him  by  force,  and  came 
with  a  great  army  to  Armenia  to  capture  the  prize;  but  he  was 
killed  in  the  war,  and  she  took  possession  of  the  country,  with 
which  she  was  so  charmed  that  she  decided  to  remain.  She  re- 
moved the  capital  of  the  enlarged  Assyrian  kingdom  to  the 
lovely  shores  of  Lake  Van,  erecting  a  palace  there  for  herself, 
and  buildings  on  the  eastern  side  of  a  city  named 
"Shamiramagerd"  (built  by  Semiramis).  Many  years  later 
a  King  of  the  Haigazian  dynasty,  whose  name  was 
Van,  rebuilt  it  and  called  it  after  himself.  This  was 
the  present  city  of  Van. 

The  next  great  interesting  event  was  in  710  B.  C,  when 
Sennacherib  of  Assyria  was  assassinated  by  his  two  sons, 
Adramelich  and  Sharezer,  who  escaped  into  Armenia.  The 
King  of  Armenia  at  this  time  was  Sgayorty,  which  means  "son 
of  giant."  He  received  the  sons  of  Sennacherib  with  great 
kindness;  they  married  Armenian  women,  and  remained  in 
the  country  till  their  death.  Their  descendants  were  great 
Armenian  princes,  bearing  the  titles  Prince  Arziroonian  and 
Prince  Kinoonian. 

It  has  already  been  said  that  the  Assyrian  influence,  civili- 
zation and  culture  had  characterized  this  period,  moulded  the 
customs  of  the  people,  and  wrought  changes  in  the  names  of 
some  places  and  persons.     It  has  been  inferred  by  some  his- 


48  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

torians  and  scholars  from  these  changes  that  the  Kings  and 
the  people  of  Ararat,  or  Armenia,  were  not  Aryans,  and  do  not 
belong  to  the  Indo-European  race  or  family.  But  they,  un- 
fortunately for  them,  have  no  better  argument  to  support  their 
hypothesis  than  two  or  three  names  found  in  the  B eh i stum 
inscription.  The  unhappiest  aspect  of  their  passion  is  this: 
One  of  the  two  scholars  mentions  those  names  as  an  argument 
to  prove  the  existence  still  of  these  non-Aryan*  people  and  lan- 
guage, and  the  other  adduces  the  same  names  as  evidence  of 
the  Aryans  making  their  appearance  at  that  period,  or  just  a 
little  before  that  time. 

Armenia  comes  ti  view  again  in  connection  with  Biblical 
history  in  the  capture  at  Jerusalem  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  600 
B.  C,  and  the  deportation  of  the  Judean  people.  The  Armenian 
King,  Hurachia,  was  one  of  his  allies  in  the  siege,  and  on  re- 
turning to  Armenia  carried  with  him  a  Hebrew  prince  named 
Shampad.  This  was  a  very  intelligent  man,  and  made  himself 
greatly  loved  and  esteemed  by  the  Armenians — a  sort  of  Daniel 
or  Joseph.  He,  too,  married  an  Armenian  noblewoman,  and 
his  descendants  became  the  very  foremost  of  the  noble  families 
and  ecclesiastical  functionaries  of  the  country,  crowning  the 
Kings  on  occasion.  They  were  called  Parkradoonias  princes, 
and  at  last  one  of  them  founded  the  third  dynasty  of  Armenian 
Kings,  the  pakradoonian.  Though  the  nation  is  Aryan,  there 
is  noble  Hebrew  (Semitic)  blood  mixed  with  it. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  past  of  the  Haigazian  dynasty 
comes  just  before  the  end,  the  time  of  Dikran  or  Tigranes  I. 
In  him  both  wisdom  and  valor  were  combined  to  an  eminent 
degree.  As  soon  as  he  succeeded  his  father,  Yerevant,  he  in- 
stituted great  reforms  to  improve  the  state  of  the  country.  He 
not  only  enlarged  it  by  conquest,  but  he  greatly  improved 
public  education  and  morals,  removed  obstructions  to  interna- 
tional commerce,  introduced  navigation  on  the  lakes  and  rivers, 

♦In  the  Behistum  inscription  we  have  three  Armenian  names,  Dadarsh- 
ish.  Drakha  and  Hanlta,  must  be  the  same  with  Khaldita  of  the  first  quota- 
tion, for  he  is  the  father  of  Arakpa;  both,  therefore,  must  be  either  Aryans  or 
non  Aryans. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  49 

encouraged  cultivations ;  trade  flourished,  every  acre  of  ground 
was  tilled,  the  country  was  alive  with  energy  and  hope.  This 
vigor  and  prosperity  aroused  the  envy  of  Ashdahag,  King  of 
Media.  He  resolved  to  kill  Dikran,  and,  to  throw  him  off  his 
guard,  married  his  sister,  Princess  Dikranooee.  A  plot  to 
murder  Dikran  wras  then  set  on  foot.  The  princess  learned  of 
it,  warned  her  brother,  whom  she  loved,  and  ran  away.  Dikran 
collected  an  army,  made  a  rapid  march  to  Media,  surprised  and 
slew  Ashdahag,  and  brought  back  a  vast  amount  of  spoils  in 
captives  and  goods.  He  built  a  fine  city  on  the  bank  of  the 
Tigris,  and  called  it  Dikranagerd,  "the  city  of  Dikran."  It  was 
afterwards  the  residence  of  the  sister  who  had  saved  his  life.  It 
is  now  called  by  the  Turks  Diarbekr. 

The  most  important  political  achievement  of  his  life  was 
assisting  Cyrus  in  the  capture  of  Babylon,  538  B.  C.  The  two 
monarchs  were  very  friendly,  and  Dikran's  Armenian  army 
was  a  chief  factor  in  the  conquest.  In  Jeremiah's  prophecy  of 
the  capture  about  a  century  before  it  occurred,  he  mentions  the 
Armenian  kingdom  as  one  of  the  actors,  "the  kingdoms  of 
Ararat,  Minni  and  Ashkenaz."    (Jer.  li.,  27.) 

After  Dikran's  death  his  son,  Vahakn,  or  Vahi,  succeeded 
him;  he  was  considered  a  god  by  the  people,  and  worshiped 
as  such  through  a  monument  after  his  death.  Thus  far  the 
people  had  mostly  worshiped  the  one  true  God,  but  from  this 
time  they  relapsed  into  heathenism  for  a  while,  on  account  of 
the  influences  pressing  on  them  from  outside.  The  last  King 
of  the  Haigazian  dynasty  was  Vahi,  or  Vahakn.  When  Alex- 
ander the  Great  invaded  Persia,  Vahe  went  to  Darius'  help  with 
40,000  infantry  and  7,000  cavalry.  But  Alexander  conquered 
first  Darius  and  then  Vahi  (323  B.  C.),  and  annexed  both 
Persia  and  Armenia.  From  this  time  the  country  of  Armenia 
was  governed  by  the  Macedonian  ralers  until  the  defeat  of 
Antiochus  the  Great  by  the  Romans.  At  this  time  Armenia 
recovered  her  independence,  which  did  not,  however,  last  very 
long.  Thus  came  to  an  end  the  first  Armenian' dynasty,  after 
an  existence  of  1,922  years. 


50  ILLUSTRATED     ARM  E  X  1  A 

THE   STORY   OF  ARMENIAN    DYNASTIES.       (CONTINUED.) 

The  Second:  The  Arshagoonian,  from  150  B.  C.  to  428  A.  D. 

This  dynasty  began  not  far  from  150  B.  C,  close  to  the 
time  when  Carthage  was  utterly  destroyed  and  Greece  was 
finally  subjugated.  It  ended  428  A.  D.,  about  half  a  century 
before  the  extinction  of  the  western  Roman  empire,  and  about 
the  time  Genseric  and  his  Vandals  conquered  Africa.  It  is  by 
far  the  most  famous  of  the  Armenian  royal  houses,  for  it  em- 
braces the  very  heart  of  the  classic  times  with  which  all  edu- 
cated people  are  familiar.  It  brings  us  perpetually  in  contact 
with  the  most  brilliant  and  best  known  of  classic  names.  It  is 
sprinkled  with  names  towering  up  familiar  and  powerful,  even 
among  the  Greek  and  Roman  magnates,  and  in  spite  of  political 
ups  and  downs  it  covers  a  time  of  immense  eNpansion  for  the 
Armenian  people,  of  a  firmly  rooted  growth  in  numbers,  wealth 
and  consciousness  of  national  unity,  which  has  enabled  the  na- 
tion to  survive  and  keep  its  united  being  through  many  cen- 
turies of  dismemberment,  impoverishment,  massacre  and  at- 
tempts at  outright  extermination  again  and  again.  More  than 
all,  it  covers  the  time  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  conversion  of  Ar- 
menia to  his  religion,  first  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  as  by 
its  history  and  traditions  it  ought  to  have  been.  During  the 
time  between  the  disappearance  of  the  line  of  Haig  and  the  rise 
of  the  line  of  Arshag,  Armenia  was  not  by  any  means  wholly 
without  Kings  of  its  own,  but  it  was  mostly  a  dependency.  The 
rise  of  the  Arsacidae  or  Arshag  dynasty  of  Parthia  was  a 
complete  overthrow  of  the  Macedonian  influence  in  the  East. 
Arsaces,  the  Parthian  King,  appointed  his  brother  Valarsaces 
King  over  Armenia,  and  these  two  countries,  governed  by  one 
reigning  family,  were  in  full  sympathy  with  each  other  and  in 
firm  alliance  for  a  time,  and  a  worthy  antagonist  and  opponent 
of  the  Romans,  who  were  pushing  eastward  over  the  territories 
once  subdued  by  the  Macedonian  prince,  AleNander  the  Great. 

Among  the  successors  of  Valarsaces  of  Arsacidae  or  Arshag 


DIKRAN    II. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  5 1 

dynasty  of  Armenia,  Tigranes  the  Great,  or  the  second,  immor- 
talized himself,  not  only  in  the  history  of  Armenia,  but  also  in 
universal  history.  His  name  was  the  glory  of  his  people,  as  it 
was  also  a  terror  to  his  enemies.  He  extended  his  dominions 
from  the  Caucasiammouiitains  to  the  Mesopotamian  plains,  and 
from  the  Caspian  Sea  to  the  Mediterranean,  including  Media, 
Atropatene,  Assyria  proper,  Cilicia,  Syria,  and  Phoenicia.  He 
built  a  new  capital  city  of  an  immense  size,  and  called  after 
his  name,  Tigranaghert*  (built  by  Tigranes). 

After  these  conquests  he  called  himself  "King  of  Kings'1 
(that  is,  emperor,  king  with  other  kings  under  him),  which  title 
the  Parthian  Kings  had  claimed  theretofore.  He  would  prob- 
ably have  ended  by  mastering  and  restoring  the  unity  of  the  old 
Seleucia  kingdom  in  its  widest  extent,  the  whole  heart  of  west- 
ern Asia,  had  he  not  in  an  evil  hour  been  induced  by  that  reck- 
less old  fighter,  his  father-in-law,  Mithradates  of  Pontus,  to 
join  him  in  war  against  the  Romans.  Tig-ranes'  own  son  had 
quarreled  with  him,  and  taken  refuge  with  the  King  of  Parthia, 
whose  daughter  he  married,  and  now  offered  to  guide  his 
father-in-law  into  Armenia  if  he  would  invade  it  as  the  ally  of 
the  Romans.  This  was  done,  and  Tigranes  the  Elder  had  to 
fly  to  the  mountains;  but  the  Parthian  King  grew  tired  of  the 
siege  of  rock  castles,  and  went  home,  leaving  his  son-in-law  to 
carry  on  operations  with  part  of  the  army.  The  great  Ar- 
menian King  at  once  broke  loose,  and  annihilated  the  forces  of 
his  son,  who  fled  to  Pompey,  just  invading  Armenia  with  the 
Roman  army.  Even  the  great  Tigranes  was  no  match  for 
Rome,  and  had  to  surrender.  Pompey  was  not  harsh  with 
him,  but  left  him  Armenia  (except  Sophene  and  Gordyene, 
which  were  made  into  a  kingdom  for  his  son)  and  his  Parthian 
conquests,  even  going  so  far  as  to  send  a  Roman  division  to 
wrest  these  from  the  Parthian  King,  who  had  reconquered 
them  on  Tigranes'  defeat,  and  restore  them  to  the  latter.     On 

*  According  to  Strodo,  twelve  Greek  cities  were  depopulated  to  furnish 
Tlgranacerta  with  Inhabitants  (xl.  14,  section  15).  According  to  Appian,  three 
hundred  thousand  Cappadoclans  were  translated  thither  (Mithrid,  page  21(1 
(').  lMutach  speaks  of  the  population  as  having  heen  drawn  from  Cilicia, 
Oappadocia,  Gordyene,  Assyria,  and  Adiabent,  ("Lueull,  26),  "Sixth  Oriental 
Monarchy.*'   by   G.    Rawlinson. 


52  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

the  departure  of  Pompey,  the  Parthians  once  more  reclaimed 
them,  but  a  compromise  was  finally  made.  Phraates  of  Par- 
thia,  however,  resumed  once  more  the  title  of  "King  of  Kings." 
Tigranes  remained  the  ally  of  the  Romans  till  his  death  in  55 
B.  C,  a  reign  of  thirty-nine  years,  on  the  whole  of  great  glory 
and  usefulness. 

He  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Artavasdes  (Ardvash),  who 
inherited  that  most  dreadful  of  legacies,  a  place  between  the 
hammer  and  the  anvil.  For  the  next  quarter  of  a  century  the 
Romans  and  the  steadily  growing  and  consolidating  power  of 
the  Parthian  empire  were  alternately  irresistible  in  eastern  Ana- 
tolia. It  was  impossible  to  avoid  taking  sides,  for  neutrality 
meant  invasion  by  one  party  or  the  other;  and  whichever  side 
he  took  he  was  sure  to  be  punished  for  as  soon  as  the  other 
came  uppermost.  If  Artavasdes  had  been  as  dexterous  as 
Alexius  Comninus  himself  he  could  hardly  have  escaped  ruin; 
that  he  kept  his  throne  for  over  twenty  years  is  proof  that  he 
was  not  unworthy  of  his  father.  First  came  the  invasion  of 
Parthia  by  Crassus.  Artavasdes,  faithful  to  his  father's  Roman 
allegiance,  asked  him  to  make  the  invasion  by  way  of  Armenia, 
and  offered  to  help  him.  Crassus  refused,  but  the  Parthian 
King,  Orades,  invaded  Armenia.  However,  he  made  peace, 
and  betrothed  his  eldest  son,  Pacorus,  to  Artavasdes'  daugh- 
ter, just  before  news  was  brought  him  of  the  annihilation  of 
Crassus'  army,  guaranteed  by  Crassus'  severed  head  and  hand, 
The  civil  wars  of  Rome  for  years  to  come  broke  the  Roman 
power,  and  the  Parthians  (with  the  good  will  of  the  inhabitants, 
who  detested  the  Roman  pro-consuls),  swept  westward,  com- 
pelled submission  or  alliance  from  all  the  countries  to  the  Tau- 
rus, and  even  annexed  all  Syria  for  a  time,  just  as,  seven  cen- 
turies later,  the  Syrians,  from  hate  of  the  Byzantine  governors, 
gave  up  their  cities  to  the  Saracens.  But  the  Roman  power 
once  more  rallied.  The  Parthians  were  driven  out  of  Syria, 
and  Pacorus  was  killed.  The  aged  Orades,  under  whom  the 
Parthian  empire  proper  reached  its  pinnacle,  died,  leaving  the 
throne  to  one  of  those  jealous,  murderous  despots  so  familiar 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  53 

in  eastern  history,  who  made  a  general  slaughter  of  his  broth- 
ers, and  even  murdered  his  son  to  remove  any  possible  leader  of 
a  revolt,  and  Artavasdes  once  more  returned  to  the  Roman 
alliance.  In  the  year  36  A.  D.,  Mark  Antony  undertook  the 
task  Crassus  had  so  terribly  failed  in  seventeen  years  before,  of 
striking  at  the  heart  of  Parthia.  But  this  time  the  invasion  was 
by  way  of  Armenia.  It  was  almost  as  frightful  a  disaster  as  the 
former;  a  third  of  the  army  of  100,000  men  was  destroyed  by 
the  enemy,  8,000  died  of  cold  and  storm  in  the  Armenian 
mountains.  The  wounded  died  in  enormous  numbers;  but 
that  Artavasdes  let  the  army  winter  in  his  country,  it  would 
have  perished  as  completely  as  Crassus'  did.  In  spite  of  this, 
the  Romans,  wanting  a  scapegoat,  laid  the  whole  blame  on 
Artavasdes,  without  a  shadow  of  reason  that  can  be  shown.  It 
was  the  last  time  for  a  century  and  a  half  that  the  Romans  at- 
tacked Parthia.  In  default  of  that  plunder  they  resolved  to 
have  Armenia,  and  a  couple  of  years  later,  in  the  year  33  A.  D., 
they  seized  Artavades  by  treachery  and  occupied  the  country. 
The  Parthians  at  once  took  up  the  cause  of  his  son,  Artaxa, 
and  made  war  on  the  Romans  to  seat  him  on  the  throne,  and 
when  the  Roman  troops  were  withdrawn  to  help  Anthony's  cause, 
which  was  lost  in  the  battle  of  Actium,  the  Parthians  overran 
Armenia,  and  killed  or  massacred  all  the  Romans  in  the  coun- 
try, and  made  their  candidate  King  as  Artaxa  II.  This  was  in 
30  I).  C,  and  in  the  same  year  his  father,  Artavasdes,  who  had 
been  carried  to  Alexandria  by  Antony,  was  beheaded  by  Cleo- 
patra. But  the  very  next  year,  the  worthless  tyrant,  Phraates 
of  Parthia,  was  driven  from  the  throne  by  a  rebellion,  and 
Artaxa  made  peace  with  Rome. 

The  history  of  Artavasdes'  reign  is  in  essence  the  history 
of  the  next  four  centuries,  save  that  the  results  were  in.comphir- 
ably  worse. 

We  have  been  dealing  with  a  time  at  least  of  steady,  single- 
handed  government,  of  able  rulers,  either  inside  or  outside,  of 
some  sort  of  ability  to  keep  the  civil  structure  of  the  country 
from  breaking  to  pieces;  but  even  that  disappears  over  long 
periods  in  the  early  centuries  of  the  Roman  empire. 


ft 

54  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

One  great  secret  of  Armenia's  misery  during  these  ages  of 
woe — indeed,  to  a  large  extent  during  all  the  ages — lies  in  the 
fact  that  she  is  a  borderland,  a  buffer  between  great  states,  and, 
indeed,  between  great  natural  divisions  of  climate  and  society. 
She  is  the  boundary  between  semi-tropic  central  Asia  and  tem- 
perate eastern  Europe,  touching  the  land  of  the  fig  and  the  silk 
worm  on  the  one  side,  and  that  of  the  apple  and  the  mountain 
goat  on  the  other;  between  Scythian  steppes  and  Syrian  des- 
erts. In  these  earlier  ages  she  was  fought  for  between  East, 
West  and  South — Parthia,  Rome  and  a  Syro- Egyptian  power 
of  some  sort;  in  these  days  divided  between  East,  West  and 
North. 

1  lad  Armenia  been  smaller  or  more  level  she  would  have 
perished  without  a  struggle,  perhaps,  rather,  would  never  have 
existed:  but  her  territory  is  so  large  and  so  defensible,  that  her 
history  could  have  been  predicted — final  dismemberment  be- 
tween great  states  surrounding  her,  yet  not  without  ages  of 
desperate  struggle.  She  was  not  large  enough  to  be  per- 
manently the  seat  of  empire;  she  was  far  too  large  for  either 
rival  to  let  pass  wholly  into  the  hands  of  the  other.  So  she 
was  pulled  to  pieces.  But  she  wanted  to  control  her  own  des- 
tiny, and  made  a  long  and  heroic  fight  before  being  dismem- 
bered. 

To  write  the  history  of  the  next  few  centuries  would  tire 
out  all  readers,  and  would  not  do  any  good.  It  was  a  long 
duel  between  Rome  and  Persia  for  the  ownership  of  Armenia, 
in  which  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  their  unhappy  football 
nearly  perished.  Almost  the  whole  foreign  policy  of  Parthia 
was  to  control  or  to  have  a  paramount  influence  in  Armenia; 
almost  the  whole  foreign  policy  of  Rome  in  the  East  was  to  do 
the  same  thing. 

For  nearly  a  century  following  Artavasdes'  deposition, 
though  the  Romans  professed  to  govern  the  country,  and  the 
Parthians  sometimes  held  it,  and  both  sides  repeatedly  put 
kings  on  its  throne,  it  was  actually  in  a  state  of  pure  anarchv. 
Every  great  family,  seeing  it  must  depend  on  its  own  strength 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  55 

for  preservation,  extended  its  rule  over  as  wide  a  district  as 
would  submit.  Nearly  two  hundred  houses  acted  with  perfect 
independence  of  each  other  and  of  the  nominal  government, 
and  some  of  them  established  principalities  of  considerable 
size. 

After  this,  though  the  country  was  for  century  after  cen- 
tury just  the  same  shuttlecock  between  the  rival  states,  tbt 
feudal  anarchy  was  somewhat  reduced,  the  turbulent  nobilit) 
better  held  in  check;  but  it  was  impossible  that  there  should 
be  really  firm  and  orderly  government  when  a  king  could  not 
be  secure  of  his  throne  for  a  year  on  one  side  or  the  other,  and 
dared  not  render  his  powerful  subjects  disaffected  by  making 
them  obey  the  laws. 

We  may  be  sure  that  the  government  was  really  an  oli- 
garchy, under  the  forms  of  a  monarchy,  and  even  the  title, 
"King  of  Armenia,"  during  this  period  must  not  be  taken  to 
mean  too  much.  There  were  sometimes  separate  kings  of 
Upper  and  Lower  Armenia,  one  under  Roman  and  one  under 
Parthian  influence.  The  independent  princes  often  made  head 
against  both,  and  outlying  principalities,  like  those  of  Osrhoene 
and  Gordyene,  probably  got  hold  of  more  or  less  Armenian 
territory  in  the  melee. 

At  this  time  the  Prince  Abgar,  or  Abgarus,  or  King  Apkor, 
the  son  of  Arsham,  from  the  dynasty  of  Osrhoene,  was  the 
fifteenth  king  of  the  little  kingdom  of  Armenia,  or  in  northern 
-Mesopotamia,  whose  capital  was  the  flourishing  city  of  Edessa, 
called  Uorfa,  which  lay  next  he  southern  border  of  Armenia. 

According  to  the  Armenian  church  history,  and  also  the 
great  Christian  father,  Eusebius,  the  origin  of  Christianity  in 
Armenia  dates  from  the  time  of  its  King  Abgar,  who  reigned 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era.  He  had  his  seat  of  gov- 
ernment in  the  city  of  Edessa,  and  was  tributary  to  the  Romans. 

Herod  Antipas,  the  tetrarch  of  Judaea,  was  hostile  to  King 
Abgor,  but  was  unable  to  injure  him,  except  by  exciting  the 
Romans  against  him.  He  therefore  accused  him  falsely  to  the 
Emperor  Tiberius   of  rebellious  projects.     King  Abgar,   on 


56  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

being  made  acquainted  with  this  accusation,  hastened  to  send 
messengers  to  the  Roman  general,  Marinus,  then  governor  of 
Syria,  Phoenicia  and  Palestine,  for  the  purpose  of  vindicating 
himself;  then,  however,  he  had  vindicated  himself  before  the 
Roman  Emperor,  Tiberius. 

After  Abgor's  death  his  son  Anane  succeeded  him.  This 
Anane  apostatized,  and  tried  to  make  his  people  do  the  same 
as  before.  lie  reopened  the  heathen  temples,  resumed  the 
public  worship  of  the  idols,  and  ordered  the  sacred  handkerchief 
removed  from  the  city  gate.  But  Adde,  the  bishop,  walled  up 
the  latter.  The  King  ordered  the  bishop  to  make  a  diadem  for 
him,  as  he  had  for  his  father.  The  bishop  refused  to  make  one 
for  a  head  that  would  not  bow  to  Christ,  and  the  King  had  the 
bishop's  feet  cut  off  while  he  was  preaching,  causing  his  death — 
the  first  Christian  martyr  on  record.  By  a  just  retribution  the 
savage  king  met  his  own  death  by  a  marble  pillar  in  his  palace 
falling  on  him  and  breaking  his  legs. 

Meantime,  Abgor's  nephew,  Sanadrug,  had  set  up  his 
standard  in  Shavarshan,  or  Ardaz,  proclaiming  himself  King 
of  Armenia — one  of  the  countless  chieftains  Avho  took  advan- 
tage of  Armenian  anarchy  to  carve  out  principalities  for  them- 
selves. On  the  death  of  Anane,  he  marched  to  Edessa,  claim- 
ing it  as  his  own  inheritance.  The  people  admitted  him  on  his 
oath  not  to  harm  them,  but  once  inside  he  massacred  all  the 
males  of  the  house  of  Abgor. 


THE  STORY  OF  ARMENIAN  DYNASTIES. 

The  Third:  the  Pakradoonian  from  885  A.  D.  to  1045  A-  D. 

For  a  century  after  the  Mohammedan  conquest  of  Persia 
the  fortunes  of  Armenia  were  apparently  at  their  lowest  ebb,  and 
as  a  country  it  almost  disappears  from  history.  But  by  one  of 
the  compensations  of  nature,  which  provides  that  human  force, 
like  other  force,  cannot  be  extinguished,  but  if  suppressed  will 
find  an  outlet  elsewhere,  its  people  began  a  career  of  brilliancy 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  57 

and  power  unequaled  in  its  history,  and  broadened  from  the 
role  of  a  tormented  buffer-state  to  that  of  the  great  Byzantine 
empire  itself.  The  Saracen  torrent  flowed  over  Armenia's  low- 
lands, and  up  to  the  base  of  its  mountain  fortresses,  but  never 
overcame  them;  for  generations  the  contending  forces  battled 
together,  surging  back  and  forth,  and.  Ailing  the  beautiful  val- 
leys with  fire  and  blood.  But  Armenia  proper  was  never  added 
to  the  list  of  Saracen  conquests,  never  made  a  part  of  the  Mo^ 
hammedan  empire,  or  strengthened  Mohammedanism,  till  four 
centuries  later,  through  Byzantine  greed  and  folly. 

Internally  it  was  all  in  feudal  anarchy  again,  so  far  as  con- 
cerned any  one  central  focus  of  government.  Even  the  Persian 
satraps  had  gone  from  the  Persian  side,  and  with  them  the  half- 
control  they  had  kept  over  the  turbulent  baronage.  On  the 
Roman  side,  from  early  in  the  seventh  century  to  early  in  the 
eighth,  the  throne  of  Constantinople  was  filled  with  weak  and 
unstable  monarchs,  fighting  for  Anatolia  against  the  Saracens, 
and  unable  to  exercise  any  effective  control  over  Armenia,  to 
which,  indeed,  they  looked  as  a  frontier  defense  against  these 
very  foes. 

But  let  us  not  attach  too  harsh  a  meaning  to  "anarchy." 
There  were  a  hundred  rulers,  it  is  true,  great  dukes  and  barons, 
each  supreme  in  his  own  district;  but  because  they  held  power 
by  the  sword  against  a  savage  enemy  their  subjects  had  to  be  a 
strong,  independent  race,  with  arms  in  their  hands,  which  they 
would  use  against  their  chiefs,  as  well  as  the  foreigners,  if  there 
was  great  oppression.  In  this  fierce  school  Armenia  learned 
the  sternest  lessons  of  self-help  and  discipline.  With  no  inter- 
ference from  outsiders  to  fear,  and  no  help  from  them  to  be  got 
i:  became  even  more  confirmed  in  its  own  independent,  isolated 
ways,  a  world  to  itself,  as  it  has  been  ever  since.  Its  cultivators 
tilled  their  fields  as  they  had  done  for  so  many  centuries,  and  its 
scholars  reach  such  books  as  they  had,  and  wrote  such  as  their 
own  minds  furnished.  But  vast  numbers  of  its  hardy  sons  took 
service  in  the  Greek  armies,  and  became  the  bone  and  sinew  of 
the  defence  of  Asia  Minor  against  the  caliphs.     Not  only  so, 


58  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

but  they  rose  by  hundreds  to  the  highest  commands  in  the  em- 
pire, both  civil  and  military.  They  formed  the  "best  society'' 
in  Constantinople  itself,  and  to  crown  all.  a  score  of  emperors 
and  empresses,  in  four  different  lines,  including  the  most  illus- 
trious ones  that  ever  sat  on  the  throne,  from  Constantine  down 
and  who  ruled  the  empire  for  two  hundred  and  seventy-seven 
years,  were  Armenians.  It  is  within  the  truth,  and  can  be  jus- 
tified from  the  greatest  of  English  historians,  to  say  that  for 
four  centuries  the  Byzantine  empire  was  not  a  Greek  but  an 
Armenian  empire.  Armenians  by  blood  filled  all  the  great 
offices  of  state,  commanded  the  armies,  occupied  the  throne  for 
nearly  three  hundred  years,  and  preserved  the  empire  from  ex- 
ternal invasion  and  internal  disintegration.  It  was  the  acces- 
sion of  an  Armenian  dynasty  that  turned  it  from  a  decaying 
power  to  one  that  expanded  steadily  for  two  centuries,  from 
one  falling  into  anarchy  to  one  the  glory  of  the  world  for  scien- 
tific organization,  and  it  was  the  final  overthrow  of  Armenian 
influence  that  ruined  the  empire,  being  followed  almost  at  once 
by  the  loss  of  half  its  territory  and  the  richest  part,  and  the 
breaking  up  of  its  system  of  civil  administration.  Everywhere 
in  the  time  of  Byzantine  glory  you  find  the  list  full  of  Armenian 
names.  The  appearance  of  "Bordas''  as  the  name  of  generals 
or  civil  magnates  is  always  proof  of  Armenian  blood,  and  that 
name  is  monotonously  common.  It  is  the  Greek  form  of 
"Yarton,"  though  now  and  then  they  make  it  "Bardones." 
One  of  the  greatest  conquerors  in  Byzantine  history,  John 
Kurkuas,  was  an  Armenian,  from  a  family  which  supplied  three 
generations  of  statesmen  and  generals  and  two  great  emperors, 
and  this  is  part  of  what  the  immortal  historian  of  "Greece  Under 
Foreign  Domination,"  George  Finlay,  has  to  say: — 

Let  us  note  the  Armenian  sovereigns  of  the  Byzantine 
empire.  First,  the  great  iconoclast  house  of  Leo,  the  so-called 
Isaurian,  the  saviour  and  restorer  of  the  empire,  which  reigned 
from  716  to  797.  Leo  considered  himself  an  Armenian,  and 
he  ought  to  have  known  best.  He  married  his  daughter  to  an 
Armenian.       He  saved  Constantinople  from  capture  by  the 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  59 

Saracens,  causing  the  destruction  of  the  finest  Mohammedan 
army  ever  gotten  together;  of  its  180,000  men  only  30,000  got 
back  home,  according  to  the  Mohammedan  historians. 

Twenty-two  years  later  another  great  Moslem  army  was 
annihilated  by  Leo,  and  for  two  centuries  the  Saracens  scarcely 
troubled  the  empire  again.  But  not  only  so,  he  remodeled  the 
whole  administration  so  effectively  that  no  serious  breakdown 
occurred  for  three  centuries,  and  he  put  new  life  into  the  whole 
society,  so  that  it  began  to  outgrow  its  enemies,  as  well  as  out- 
fight them.  After  his  able  dynasty  ended  another  Armenian, 
Leo  V.,  reigned  seven  and  a  half  years,  from  813  to  820. 

About  half  a  century  later  began  the  Basilian  dynasty, 
under  which  the  laws  were  codified  and  Bulgaria  destroyed. 

Basil  was  born  in  Macedonia,  but  the  name  of  his  brother, 
Symbatias — Armenian  Simpad — shows  that  he  was  of  an  Ar- 
menian family,  the  colonies  of  Armenians  having  spread  all 
over  the  civilized  world. 

His  line  reigned  without  a  break  from  867  to  963,  when  the 
beautiful  widow,  Theophano,  was  pushed  aside  for  sixteen  years 
by  another  Armenian  house.  Nikephoras  Phokas  and  his 
nephew,  John  Zimiskes,  two  of  the  ablest  generals  and  states- 
men ever  on  the  throne,  descendants  of  a  brother  of  the  great 
commander,  John  Kurkuas,  before  spoken  of;  then  Theo- 
phano's  son,  Basil  II. — Boulgaroktanas,  the  Bulgarian  Slayer, 
and  the  ultimate  destroyer  of  Armenia  as  well — took  the  throne 
979,  and  the  dynasty  continued  till  1057,  when  it  had  run  to 
dregs,  and  had  just  before  finally  ruined  Armenia,  and  by  so 
doing  ruined  the  empire. 

To  go  back  to  Armenia  itself,  the  reason  a  feudal  anarchy 
always  ends  in  a  military  monarchy,  no  matter  how  able  or 
self-willed  every  one  of  the  separate  chiefs  may  be,  is  that  this 
very  class  most  interested  in  perpetuating  it  grow  weary  of  it. 
The  stronger  barons  oppress  and  plunder  the  weaker,  who  are 
always  superior  in  numbers  and  in  united  strength  if  they  will 
act  together.  A  small  lord  may  like  to  be  free  from  control  by 
the  King's  officers,  as  well  as  a  great  one;  but  if  he  can  only 


60  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

have  that  privilege  by  letting  his  overbearing  neighbor  be  free 
from  it  too,  and  rob  him,  he  finds  it  does  not  pay,  and  sighs  for 
a  law  that  will  control  everyone  alike,  and  a  strong  ruler  to 
enforce  it.  So  if  a  chief  in  such  a  community  comes  to  be 
known  as  having  a  hard  hand,  and  letting  no  one  be  above  the 
law  but  himself,  the  small  landholders  flock  under  his  banner; 
he  grows  into  a  prince,  and  eventually  some  prince  of  such  a 
family  will  make  himself  king,  with  the  good  will  and  help  of  all 
but  a  few  great  houses,  who  feel  able  to  take  care  of  themselves 
and  desirous  of  taking  care  of  others. 

This  happened  in  Armenia.  In  743,  a  century  after  the 
battle  of  Nehavend,  and  four  years  after  Leo's  crushing  defeat 
of  the  second  great  Saracen  army,  we  find  that  a  chief  named 
Ashod,  of  the  family  of  Pakrad,orBagrat,  claimingdescentfrom 
the  ancient  Jews,  had  managed  to  win  control  over  central  and 
northern  Armenia ;  how  long  it  had  been  exercised  or  what  it 
grew  from  no  one  knows.  When  Ashod  is  the  first  known 
founder  of  the  Pakradoonian  dynasty  of  Armenia,  probably  in 
885,  the  two  most  interested  powers,  the  Persian  and  Greek, 
were  both  favorable  to  this  change,  and  no  doubt  both  expected 
to  benefit  by  it.  Under  these  auspices  a  dynasty,  the  descen- 
dants of  Sumbat  and  Pakrat,  and  hence  of  the  direct  line  of 
Israel  (see  the  Haigian  dynasty  in  this  book),  took  possession 
of  the  Armenian  throne.  During  the  period  of  wellnigh  two 
hundred  years  of  their  troubled  sway,  the  history  of  Armenia 
has  little  other  interest  save  what  attaches  to  a  condition  of  in- 
cessant commotion  and  massacre,  arising  from  the  alternating 
oppressions  of  Persians  and  Greeks,  as  they  saw  it  to  be  their 
advantage  to  intervene  in  her  affairs.  The  effusive  friendship 
of  both  eastern  and  western  patrons  had  begun  to  visibly  cool 
before  a  single  generation  of  the  new  regime  had  passed  away. 
Issuf,  a  creature  of  the  Persian  caliph,  after  carrying  on  hostili- 
ties against  the  Pakradoonian  King,  Sumbat  I.  (the  second  of 
the  dynasty),  seized  him,  and  tortured  him  to  death.  This  mis- 
creant continued  his  invasions  of  Armenia  in  the  reign  of  Sum- 
bat's  successor.     Ashod  II.,  "the  Iron,"  gained  his  title  from  his 


ASHOD. 


'"^faf 


•'SV^ 


m 


a 


i 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  6l 

stern  military  power.  He  beat  back  the  Arabs,  and  gave  the 
land  peace  for  a  considerable  time.  He  left  no  son,  and  his 
brother  Appas  succeeded  him,  another  brave  and  wise  ruler, 
who  brought  back  the  Armenian  captives  held  in  bondage  by 
the  Saracens.  He  made  the  city  of  Kars  his  capital.  He 
greatly  improved  the  city,  and  built  a  beautiful  cathedral  there. 
After  a  reign  of  twenty-four  years  he  died  in  peace,  and  his  son 
succeeded  him  as  Ashod  III. 

This  was  the  glory  of  the  line  in  prowess  and  generosity. 
He  reminds  one  of  Alfred  the  Great  in  England.  He  was  the 
terror  of  his  country's  enemies ;  not  one  of  them,  Arab,  Greek, 
or  Persian,  dared  to  invade  Armenia,  and  they  sent  presents  to 
conciliate  his  friendship.  It  was  under  him  that  the  country 
became  formally  independent  again.  He  filled  it  with  fortified 
places.  He  gave  all  his  personal  income  in  charity,  and  estab- 
lished almshouses  and  state  charities.  He  was  so  benevolent 
and  so  interested  in  the  destitute  that  he  was  called  "The  Merci- 
ful." He  ruled  over  Armenia  twenty-six  years,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son,  Simpad.  This  was  neither  a  good  man  nor 
good  ruler,  but  corrupt,  cruel,  and  ambitious  only  for  selfish 
purposes.  He  made  the  city  of  Ani,  on  the  north  side  of  Mount 
Ararat,  the  royal  capital,  built  strong  walls  and  lofty  towers 
around  it,  and  is  said  to  have  erected  iooi  churches  in  it — which 
he  might  do,  and  still  be  a  bad  man.  The  extent  of  its  still  ex- 
isting ruins  of  palaces,  churches,  towers,  and  castles  testifies 
that  it  was  one  of  the  great  cities  of  the  world,  like  Babylon  and 
Antioch. 

For  more  than  a  century  Armenia  flourished  and  grew 
rich;  then  it  disappeared  once  more  under  the  hammer  and 
anvil  of  Byzantine  and  Saracen,  aided  by  internal  disruption 
and  the  treachery  of  its  great  nobles,  who  hated  the  Kings  for 
controlling  their  lawlessness.  Let  us  take  in  just  its  situation. 
It  included  the  heart  of  the  Armenian  highlands,  but  it  had  not 
the  extent  of  old  Armenia,  several  Armenian  districts  being  in- 
dependent of  it,  and  either  free  or  tributary  to  the  Byzantine 
empire.       Ani  was  its  seat,  but  the  district  around  Kars,  fifty 


62  [ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

miles  northwest,  had  split  off  into  a  separate  principality,  the 
boundary  between  the  two  being  the  Aros;  on  the  east  was  Vas- 
paurakan,  another  princedom;  on  the  west  Sebate,  another;  on 
the  north  Iberia,  and  Abkhasia,  or  Abasgia,  or  Albania,  the 
realms  of  the  Georgians,  and  one  or  two  others  not  quite  cer- 
tain. But  all  these  were  ruled  by  Armenian  princes,  mostly  of 
the  Pakradoonian  house. 

The  Byzantines  and  Armenians  were  not  long  destined  to 
fight  their  battles  side  by  side.  In  1022  the  Emperor  Pasil  11. 
compelled  the  Armenian  King,  Johannes  Simpad,  to  sign  a 
treaty,  ceding  at  his  death  the  city  of  Ani,  with  the  province  in 
which  it  stood,  to  the  Greeks.  Constantine  IX.  called  upon 
Gaghik,  the  last  of  the  Pakradoonian  Kings,  to  ratify  this 
treaty.  On  his  refusal,  Constantine,  forming  an  alliance  with 
the  Saracen  Emperor  Tovin,  laid  siege  to  Ani.  The  treachery 
of  the  Armenian  chiefs  aided  the  project  of  the  emperor.  Gag- 
hik surrendered,  and.  receiving  a  safe  conduct,  set  out  to 
Constantinople  to  plead  his  cause.  Meantime,  the  city  of  Ani 
was  captured  by  the  Byzantine  forces  (1045).  This  fatal  blow 
to  the  Pakradoonian  monarchy,  coming  from  the  hand  of  a 
Christian  power,  destroyed  not  only  an  Armenian  dynasty,  but 
the  only  barrier  to  the  advances  of  the  Seljauk  Turks.  It  was, 
therefore,  in  due  time  destined  to  recoil  with  direct  results  upon 
the  head  of  the  assailant. 

Following  close  upon  the  surrender  of  Ani  the  Seljauk 
Turks  made  repeated  incursions  into  Armenia.  In  the  third 
of  these  incursions  they  captured  the  city  of  Arzen,  and  mas- 
sacred in  cold  blood  140,000  people;  the  remnant  they  carried 
awav  into  captivity.  The  native  historian  adds  that  the  same 
cruelties  were  perpetrated  by  this  barbarous  horde  on  many  other 
cities  of  Armenia.  Ani,  meantime,  was  occupied  by  60,000 
Greek  troops,  under  the  command  of  Camenas,  and  these  were 
well  pleased  to  look  on  with  complacency  at  the  sufferings  of 
the  Armenians. 

In  1062,  after  the  death  of  Togrue,  his  successor  invaded 
Armenia  and  captured  Ani. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  63 

We  have  now  reached  the  close  of  our  brief  survey  of  the 
general  character  of  the  Bagradoonian  dynasty.  The  termina- 
tion of  the  chequered  career  of  the  exiled  King  Gaghik  is  tragic 
in  no  ordinary  degree.  Father  Chamich  gravely  relates  how 
the  exiled  King  visited  Marcus,  the  Metropolitan  of  Caesarea, 
with  a  few  attendants.  He  had  heard  that  Marcus  kept  a  huge 
dog,  which,  to  show  his  contempt,  he  named  "Armenian." 
Marcus  made  a  show  of  giving  the  ex-king  a  cordial  welcome, 
and  prepared  for  him  a  feast  on  the  evening  of  his  arrival. 
Gaghik  desired  his  host  to  call  his  large  dog.  The  animal,  on 
being  brought  in  was  saluted  by  his  master  by  the  name  "Ar- 
menian." On  a  given  signal,  the  attendants  of  Gaghik  seized 
the  dog  and  put  him  into  a  large  bag.  They  forthwith  threw 
the  Metropolitan  in  beside  him,  and  securely  fastened  the  bag. 
The  dog  was  then  severely  beaten,  and  so  becoming  furious,  he 
worried  his  master  to  death.  Falling  into  the  hands  ol  the 
Greeks,  Gaghik  was,  in  revenge,  subjected  to  the  most  horrid 
cruelties,  and  after  being  put  to  death,  his  bloody  corpse  was 
suspended  from  the  walls  of  Kigistra,  to  strike  terror  into  his 
followers.  So  perished,  says  Chamich,  Gaghik,  in  the  fifty- 
fifth  year  of  his  age.  He  had  been  three  years  in  possession  of 
the  throne  of  Armenia,  and  thirty-five  years  in  exile.  The  same 
authority  observes:  "A  want  of  prudence  removed  the  crown 
from  the  Arsacidse,  and  a  melancholy  want  of  unanimity 
caused  the  downfall  of  the  Pakradoonians." 

With  the  overthrow  of  the  Pakradoonian  dynasty  the  for- 
tunes of  Armenia  sunk  to  a  still  lower  ebb  than  ever  they  had 
done  before.  A  portion  of  the  conquered  dominions  was 
seized  by  the  Greeks,  while  the  Turks  and  Kurds  did  their  best 
to  establish  a  claim  to  the  rest.  At  this  stage  took  place  a  gen- 
eral movement  into  different  provinces  of  the  Turkish  empire, 
particularly  into  the  regions  lying  to  the  west  and  south  of  their 
ancient  settlements.  Only  one  or  two  native  princes  continued 
to  maintain  their  independence.  Of  these,  Rupen,  related  to 
the  Pakradoonia,  extended  the  limits  of  his  dominions,  and  his 
successors  advanced  to  Cilicia  and  Cappadocia,  where  they  es- 
tablished what  is  known  as  the  Rupenian  kingdom  and  dynasty. 


64  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

THE   STORY   OF  ARMENIAN    DYNASTIES.       (CONTINUED.) 

The  Fourth:    The  Rupenian,  from  1080  A.  D.  to  1375  A.  D. 

In  the  time  of  Rupen  the  patriarchate  was  weakened  by 
divisions.  Instead  of  one,  the  Armenian  church  set  up  four 
rival  pontiffs,  but  the  general  voice  was  in  favor  of  St.  Gregory, 
to  whose  character  and  reforms  we  have  already  alluded. 
Around  him  and  successive  pontiff's  gathered  groups  of  studi- 
ous and  scholarly  men,  whose  names  and  works  are  still  held  in 
honor.  While  Ritpen  and  his  successors  styled  themselves 
Kings,  it  was  not  until  the  time  of  Leo  II.  (1198)  that  the  Ru- 
penian kingdom  was  formally  constituted  and  recognized  by 
other  powers.  In  that  year  Pope  Celestinus  III.,  at  the  insti- 
gation of  the  German  Emperor  (Henry  VI.),  sanctioned  the 
coronation  of  Leo,  and  sent  him  a  magnificent  crown  by  the 
hand  of  Conrad,  Archbishop  of  Maguntia.  The  Emperor  sent 
him  at  the  same  time  a  splendid  standard,  having  in  the  middle 
a  lion  rampant,  in  allusion  to  his  name.  This  device  was  hence- 
forth adopted  by  the  Armenian  Kings  in  lieu  of  the  ancient 
design  of  the  eagle,  pigeon  and  dragon. :: 

But  we  have  anticipated  .the  grand  event  which,  in  some 
measure,  renders  memorable  this  era  in  the  history  of  the 
Cilician  kingdom  of  Armenia.  This  was  its  temporary  connec- 
tion with  the  Crusades.  While  the  new  sovereignty  on  the 
west  of  Asia  Minor  was  struggling  into  and  for  existence,  first 
with  Greeks,  and  then  again  with  Persians,  a  new  enterprise 
was  rousing  to  its  inmost  depths  the  heart  of  the  nations  of 
Christian  Europe.  This  was  the  conception  of  a  grand  Cru- 
sade, whose  object  should  be  to  wrest  Palestine  and  Jerusalem, 
and  Constantinople  as  well,  from  the  grasp  of  the  infidel. 

It  was  true  that  at  this  stage  the  deliverance  of  Constanti- 
nople was  only  prospective,  as  it  was  not  yet  in  the  hands  of  the 
advancing  foe.  But  it  was  easily  seen  that,  with  the  Turkish 
camp  already  pitched  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Bosphorus, 

•Camich,  vol.  ii,   pp.  215. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  65 

this  could  only  be  a  question  of  time.  Peter  the  Hermit,  laden 
with  the  benediction  of  Urban  II.,  and  supported  by  a  countless 
host  of  warriors,  bearing  on  their  breasts  or  shoulders  the  sign 
of  the  Red  Cross,  was  now  at  Constantinople,  on  the  way  to 
deliver  Jerusalem.  Under  the  leadership  of  Godfrey  of 
Bouillon  this  motley  group  had  made  its  way  to  this,  its  first 
friendly  resting-place  and  object  of  succor.  Crossing  into  Asia 
Minor,  it  had  found  itself  in  the  horrors  of  famine  and  pesti- 
lence. The  Armenians,  both  of  eastern  and  western  Asia,  sent 
abundant  supplies,  and  by  their  seasonable  services  earned  the 
gratitude  of  the  leaders  of  the  Crusade.  The  same  friendly 
spirit  was  shown  also  in  the  case  of  the  second  Crusade.  On 
the  capture  of  Jerusalem  in  1099  tne  leader  of  the  first  Crusade 
sent  the  Armenian  prince,  Constantine,  valuable  presents,  cre- 
ated him  a  marquis,  and  conferred  on  him  the  honor  of  knight- 
hood. 

Amid  the  turmoil  of  Saracen  conquest,  in  honor  of  the 
founder  this  new  dynasty  was  styled  the  Rupenian  dynasty, 
which  lasted  about  three  centuries.  Meanwhile  Malek  Shah 
died,  and  the  vast  Seljukian  empire  was  divided  into  various 
principalities.  One  of  these  principalities  occupied  a  large 
portion  of  western  Asia,  bordering  on  the  Greek  empire,  having 
for  its  capital  the  city  of  Nice. 

It  was  during  the  reign  of  Constantine,  the  son  and  suc- 
cessor of  Rupen  I.,  that  the  immense  army  of  the  Crusades 
for  the  first  time  marched  into  western  Asia,  took  Nice  and 
various  places,  and  laid  siege  to  Antioch.  But  a  terrible 
famine  broke  out  in  their  camp.  When  the  information  of  it 
reached  Constantine  and  his  chiefs,  they  sent  an  abundance  of 
provisions  to  the  army  of  the  Crusaders. 

The  last  dynasty  of  the  Armenians  in  Cilicia  was  by  no 
means  in  a  favorable  condition.  While  western  Asia  was  in  a 
fearful  agitation,  and  in  a  tumultuous  situation,  the  Seljukian, 
after  losing  their  capital,  Nice,  made  Iconium — which  over  ten 
centuries  before  had  listened  to  the  famous  missionaries,  Paul 
and  Barnabas,  tell  the  story  of  the  Cross — their  capital,  and 


66  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

made  it  resound  with  the  "ezzins"  of  the  "muezzin"  from  the 
numerous  minarets,  and  became  a  source  of  great  trouble  to 
the  Armenians.  The  Greeks,  inflamed  with  like  hatred  and 
prejudice  as  before,  were  more  or  less  in  constant  conflict  with 
them.  The  Armenians,  over-exultant  because  of  the  presence 
of  the  Christian  forces  of  the  western  nations  in  the  east,  were 
willing  to  enlist  in  aid  of  their  cause  by  entering  into  an  alliance 
with  them.  Hut  the  suspicions  of  some  that  these  foreigners 
were  anxious  to  bring  the  Armenian  church  or  people  under 
the  control  of  the  Pope  of  Rome  were  sustained  by  the  facts, 
revealed  in  due  time.  Though  their  attempts  proved  unsuc- 
cessful, a  schism  originated  in  the  church,  which,  with  its  detri- 
mental effect  upon  the  church  and  the  people,  still  continues. 

A  new  tremendous  army  of  the  Mongolians,  under  the 
command  of  Chinghis  Khan,  made  its  appearance  in  western 
Asia.  They  spread  all  over  Persia,  Armenia,  and  Asia  Minor 
destruction,  devastation,  and  death,  committing  wholesale  mas- 
sacre, consuming  the  cities  and  towns  by  fire,  and  carrying 
awav  hundreds  and  thousands  into  captivity.  Armenia  has 
been  over  and  over  inundated  with  the  blood  of  her  inhabitants, 
enriched  with  their  carcasses  scattered  upon  her  face;  her 
beautiful  and  bright  sky  was  often  rendered  foggy  and  smoky 
on  account  of  the  conflagrations  of  her  immense  cities  and 
numerous  towns,  kindled  by  the  enemy ;  her  beautiful  sons  and 
daughters  were  torn  away  from  the  bosoms  of  their  parents; 
carried  away  as  captives,  and  sold  for  slaves;  her  magnificent 
churches  and  monasteries  were  converted  into  mosques  and 
"tekes.'M  Yet  the  "House  of  Togarmalr'  marched  on  through 
these  tremendous  seas  of  oppression,  persecution,  cruelty,  and 
injustice,  from  a  remote  antiquity  to  the  end  of  the  fourteenth 
century  of  our  era,  lifting  up  the  old,  centuries  old,  flag  of  lib- 
erty, torn  to  pieces  and  ready  to  fall  into  an  irreparable  disso- 
lution. 

Xo  doubt  the  object  of  the  Popes,  who  urged  the  western 
sovereigns  to  raise  Crusades  against  the  Mohammedans,  and 
kept  them  engaged  in  this  unsuccessful  enterprise  for  a  length 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  6j 

of  time,  at  the  expense  of  an  immense  wealth  and  millions  of 
human  lives,  was  twofold — to  exercise  their  sublunary  power 
over  these  potentates,  and  to  further  their  influence  over  other 
Christian  nations  in  the  east. 

But  they  signally  failed  in  their  purpose.  There  came  a 
time  that  the  Popes  had  no  influence  over  the  Kings  of  Europe, 
and  the  Crusaders  in  the  east  rendered  their  names  detestable 
forever,  both  to  the  Christians  and  non-Christians.  "In  1204 
(Christian  era)  the  capital  (Constantinople)  was  captured  by  the 
Crusaders,  whose  conduct  fixed  an  indelible  stain  upon  the 
name  of  the  Franks  throughout  the  east,  especially  as  it  is  con- 
trasted with  that  of  the  Mohammedans,  who,  a  few  years  before, 
had  conquered  Jerusalem.  When  Saladin  entered  the  latter 
city  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  was  respected,  and  the 
conquered  Christians  remained  in  possession  of  their  property ; 
no  confiscations  were  made  of  the  wealth  of  the  non-comba- 
tants. But  the  vaunted  chivalry  of  the  papal  church  plundered 
a  Christian  city  without  remorse,  desecrated  its  shrines,  and 
maltreated  its  inhabitants,  while  the  profane  cry  of  "God  will 
it!"  was  raised  to  excite  each  other  to  act  the  part  of  brigands 
and  debauchees.  Sacred  plate,  golden  images  of  saints,  and 
silver  candelabra  from  the  altars;  bronze  statues  of  heathen 
idols  and  heroes,  precious  works  of  Hellenic  art;  crowns,  coro- 
nets, thrones,  vessels  of  gold  and  silver;  ornaments  of  dia- 
monds, pearls,  and  precious  stones  from  the  imperial  treasury 
and  the  palaces  of  the  nobles;  jewelry  and  precious  metals  from 
the  shops  of  the  goldsmiths;  silks,  velvets,  and  brocaded  tis- 
sues from  the  warehouses  of  the  merchants,  together  with 
coined  money,  were  accumulated  in  vast  heaps  as  spoils  to  be 
divided  by  the  victors.  A  few  of  the  crusading  clergy  endea- 
vored to  moderate  the  fury  which  the  bigoted  prejudices  of  the 
Latin  church  had  instilled  into  the  minds  of  the  soldiery  against 
the  Greeks;  but  many  priests  were  as  forward  as  the  most 
abandoned  of  the  troops  in  robbing  the  temples  of  a  kindred 
faith."* 

*"The  Turkish   Empire,"   pp.   238,   239. 


68  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

Our  Saviour's  words  were  literally  fulfilled.  With  what 
measure  the  Greeks  so  often  had  measured  and  dealt  with  the 
Armenians  it  was  meted  to  them  by  the  hands  of  the  Crusaders. 
Yet  such  a  conduct  of  the  Crusaders  with  the  Christians,  and 
undoubtedly  a  conduct  ten  times  worse  than  this  towards  the 
Mohammedans,  accounts  for  the  determination  and  fury  of  the 
latter  against  the  Christians.  The  reply  of  Melick  Nasr,  the 
Egyptian  Sultan,  to  an  application  of  the  Armenian  King,  Leo 
II.,  for  a  treaty  of  peace  was  the  following: — 

"I  will  never  make  peace  with  you  until  you  promise  on 
oath  not  to  hold  any  correspondence  or  communication  witli 
western  nations." 

Often  did  the  Mohammedan  powers  imagine  that  the  Ar- 
menians had  again  stirred  up  the  western  nations,  that  they 
were  marching  against  them  in  greater  force  than  ever  before, 
and  then  they  would  attack  the  cities  and  towns  of  the  Ar- 
menians and  commit  all  manner  of  atrocities,  thinking  that  this 
might  be  their  last  opportunity.  The  Armenian  independence 
of  Cilicia  was  surrounded  by  the  Ottoman  power  on  the  west, 
constantly  growing  in  strength  and  in  numbers;  on  the  east 
and  north  by  the  Mongolian  invaders,  under  such  leaders  as 
Togrul  Bey,  Alp  Arslan,  Chinghis  Khan,  Tamerlane,  and 
others,  who  deserve  to  be  called  the  greatest  warriors  and  the 
most  cruel  sons  of  the  world ;  on  the  south  by  the  Mohamme- 
dans of  Egypt,  under  the  reign  of  the  Mameluke  Sultans,  who 
were  no  less  formidable  than  the  previous  two,  both  in  hatred 
and  cruelty  toward  the  Christians. 

After  the  withdrawal  of  the  western  nations — or,  rather, 
their  being  driven  out  from  the  east,  in  full  satisfaction  of  their 
complete  failure,  either  to  maintain  their  position  or  ameliorate 
the  oppressed  condition  of  the  Oriental  Christians  under  the 
Mohammedans,  the  latter  had  but  little  difficulty  in  destroying 
the  independnce  of  the  Armenians  in  Cilicia.  By  various  in- 
cursions of  the  Mohammedans  of  Egypt  into  Cilicia,  the  Ar- 
menians were  reduced  in  strength  and  in  numbers.  Finally  a 
vast  army  of  the  enemy  marched  against  them.     These  mis- 


LEON    VII. 


AM)     THE     ARMENIANS.  69 

sionary  soldiers  of  Mohammed,  indeed  brutes  in  character  and 
nature,  though  clad  in  clayey  garments  of  human  forms,  spread 
themselves  all  over  the  country.  Xo  city,  town,  or  village ;  no 
building  of  any  value,  whether  church,  monastery,  or  dwelling, 
and  no  human  being  of  any  age  or  sex  that  fell  into  their  hands 
was  spared.  They  slaughtered  every  human  being,  and  burned 
to  ashes  every  building  or  razed  it  to  the  ground.  In  their  exe- 
cution of  the  unfortunate  victims  fallen  into  their  hands  they 
did  not  leave  any  mode  untried.  "The  deceitful  above  all 
things  and  desperately  wicked  heart''  of  a  depraved  humayi 
creature  could  not  have  suggested  any  new  method  of  torture 
that  these  Mohammedans  did  not  devise  and  experiment  upon 
their  captives. 

King  Leo  VI.  and  the  garrison  surrendered  on  the  condi- 
tion that  their  lives  would  be  spared.  The  Egyptian  general 
promised  this  on  oath.  Leo  VI.  was  fettered,  and,  with  his 
family,  carried  to  Cairo  in  the  eleventh  year  of  his  reign.  (A.  D. 
1373).  The  King,  Leo,  and  his  family,  after  serving  a  period 
of  imprisonment  at  Cairo,  were  freed  by  the  mediation  and 
valuable  presents  of  the  King  of  Spain  from  their  imprison- 
ment. Leo,  with  his  Queen  and  daughter,  went  to  Jerusalem. 
There  he  left  them,  at  their  own  request,  and  then  visited  the 
European  countries.  On  the  19th  of  November,  A.  D.  1393, 
he  ended  his  mortal  career  at  Paris.  Leo,  King  of  Armenia, 
was  of  small  stature,  but  of  intelligent  expression  and  of  well 
formed  features.  His  body  was  carried  to  the  tomb  clothed  in 
royal  robes  of  white,  according  to  the  custom  of  Armenia,  with 
an  open  crown  upon  his  head  and  a  golden  sceptre  in  his  hand. 
1  [e  lay  in  state  upon  a  bier  hung  with  white,  and  surrounded  by 
the  officers  of  his  household,  clothed  all  of  them  in  white  robes. 
He  was  buried  by  the  high  altar  of  the  church  of  the  Celestine. 
The  following  epitaph  is  on  his  monument,  which  still  exists 
to-day: 

"Here  lies  Leo.  VI.,  the  noble  Lousinian  Prince, 
The  King  of  Armenia, 
Who  died  1393  A.  D.,  Nov.  23d,  in  Paris."  / 


JO  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

The  enemy  had  rendered  the  country  a  complete  desert, 
and  it  still  remains  so.  The  people  also  fell  under  the  iron 
yoke  of  the  Mohammedan  power,  and  still  suffer  all  the  injus- 
tice and  cruelties  of  such  a  government  as  that  of  Turkey,  which 
has  no  excuse  for  its  existence. 


^< 


CATHERINE    KORNARO,    LAST    QUEEN    OF    ARMENIA. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    PERIOD    OF    THE    ARMENIAN    SUBJECTION    FROM     I375   TO 
THE    PRESENT    TIME. 

From  the  overthrow  of  Leo  VI.,  the  last  of  the  Rupenian 
dynasty,  in  1375,  tne  Armenian  Monarchy  ceased  to  exist. 
From  that  time  forward  even  the  semblance  of  civil  autonomy 
disappeared.  Whether,  and  when,  it  is  destined  to  reappear; 
as  the  outcome  of  the  present  situation,  is  one  of  the  questions 
which  is  still  awaiting-  solution.  The  absorption  of  Armenia, 
now  deprived  of  her  kings,  first  by  Persian  and  again  by  Turk- 
ish rulers,  makes  it  no  easy  matter  to  trace  the  course  of  her 
chequered  history. 

How  many  thousands  of  their  children  were  alienated 
from  their  paternal  homes  and  home  altars  to  adopt  Moham- 
medanism, to  swell  the  number  of  the  Janissaries;  how  many 
thousands  of  families  were  compelled  to  exchange  the  re- 
ligion of  Christ,  which  is  the  religion  of  love  and  chastity,  with 
the  religion  of  Mohammed,  which  is  the  religion  of  sensualism 
and  tyranny;  how  many  thousands  were  massacred  because 
they  could  not  obey  such  an  infernal  behest,  it  is  surely  impos- 
sible to  tell.  But  suffice  it  to  say  that  these  questions  are  not 
imaginary  possibilities,  but  actualities  performed  by  our  fan- 
atic Mohammedans,  and  instances  are  not  wanting  even  at  this 
present  day. 

While  the  expatriated  Armenians  were  so  cruelly  treated 
by  the  Turks  in  the  western  and  central  part  of  Asia  Minor, 
those  in  Armenia  proper  received  one  of  the  severest  calami- 
ties ever  inflicted  upon  men.  The  scourger  of  this  infliction 
was  the  famous  Mongolian  savage  and  warrior,  Lenk  Timour, 
commonly  called  Tamerlane.     He  made  himself  the  master  of 


72  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

an  empire  extending  from  the  walls  of  China  to  the  shores  of 
the  Mediterranean,  having  Samarkand  for  his  capital. 

He  marched  with  an  immense  army  in  1387  against  the 
Persians  and  subdued  them  within  a  short  time,  and  he  then 
fell  upon  the  Armenians;  from  the  city  of  Van  to  the  city  of 
Sibastia  (Sivas),  from  the  one  end  to  the  other  of  Armenia. 
No  city,  town  or  village  escaped  the  notice  of  this  rapacious 
potentate,  but  he  reduced  them  to  ruinous  heaps  and  ashes;  he 
slaughtered  a  great  number  of  the  inhabitants,  sparing  the 
youths  as  captives.  The  inhabitants  of  the  latter  city  (Sivas) 
surrendered  on  his  solemn  promise  that  "no  soldier  of  his  will 
lift  up  the  sword  on  them."  He,  however,  was  true  to  the  let- 
ter, but  not  to  the  spirit  of  his  promise.  Four  thousand  soldiers 
were  roasted  to  death,  great  multitudes  were  buried  alive,  and 
thousands  of  young  and  old  whose  hands  and  feet  were  tied, 
were  thrown  together  and  trampled  under  the  feet  of  the  horses. 

The  spot  upon  which  this  barbarous  mode  .of  massacre 
took  place,  to  this  day  bears  the  name  of  Sev-Hakher,  signify- 
ing in  the  Armenian  language  the  "Black  plains." 

He  then  attacked  the  Turks,  who  received  a  signal  defeat, 
and  Sultan  Bayazid  I.  in  vain  attempted  to  effect  his  escape; 
he  was  captured,  and  he  possibly  died  in  captivity  about  1402. 

"For  a  few  years  Timour  was  the  undisputed  lord  of  Asia, 
master  of  the  original  seat  of  Ottomans,  reigning  in  all  the 
splendor  of  the  ancient  caliphs  of  Samarkand,  till  death  re- 
moved him  to  the  presence  of  that  awful  Being  whose  laws 
he  had  violated  and  whose  creatures  he  had  destroyed."  He 
died  in  1406  in  his  capital,  Samarkand. 

The  magnificent  city  of  Constantinople,  after  being  the 
metropolis  of  a  Christian  nation  over  eleven  centuries,  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  barbarian  Turks.  In  vain,  and  too  late,  did 
the  Greeks  realize  their  critical  condition,  and  struggle 
against  the  angel  of  death.  The  capture  of  Constantinople  by 
the  Turks  filled  the  European  nations  with  consternation. 

The  following  is  from  the  letter  of  Pius  II.,  the  pope  of 
Rome,  who  tried  to  raise  a  crusade  against  the  Turks. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  73 

The  Strait  of  Cadiz  has  been  passed,  and  the  passion  of 
Mohammed  penetrates  even  into  Spain.  .  .  In  the  other  di- 
rection, where  Europe  extends  eastward,  the  Christian  relig- 
ion has  been  swept  away  from  all  the  shores. 

The  barbarian  Turks,  a  people  hated  by  God  and  man, 
issuing  from  the  east  of  Scythia,  have  occupied  Cappadocia, 
Poatus,  Bethynia,  Troas,  Pisidia,  Cilicia  and  all  Asia  Minor. 
Not  yet  content,  counting  on  the  weakness  and  dissensions  of 
the  Greeks,  they  have  passed  the  Hellespont,  and  got  posses- 
sion of  nearly  all  the  Grecian  cities  of  Attica,  Bceotia,  Phocis, 
Achaic,  Macedonia  and  Trace. 

Still,  the  royal  city  of  Constantinople  did  remain  the  pil- 
lar and  head  of  all  East,  the  seat  of  patriarch  and  emperor,  the 
sole  dwelling  place  of  Grecian  wisdom.  .  .  This,  too,  in 
our  own  day,  while  the  Latins,  divided  among  themselves,  for- 
sook the  Greeks,  has  that  cruel  nation  of  Turks  invaded  and 
spoiled,  triumphing  over  the  city  that  once  gave  taxes  to  all 
the  East. 

Nor  is  their  savage  appetite  yet  satiated.  The  lord  of  that 
unrighteous  people,  who  is  rather  to  be  called  a  dark  brute 
than  a  king,  a  venomous  dragon  than  emperor,  he  athirst  for 
human  blood,  brings  down  huge  forces  upon  Hungary.  Here 
he  harasses  the  Eperotes,  and  here  the  Albanians ;  and  swelling 
in  his  own  pride,  boasts  that  he  will  abolish  the  most  holy  Gos- 
pel and  all  the  law  of  Christ,  and  threatens  Christians  every- 
where with  chains,  stripes,  death  and  horrid  torments. 

Even  the  great  reformer,  immortal  Luther,  composed  a 
once  popular  prayer,  suited  to  the  times,  to  be  sung  as  a  hymn 
in  the  churches;  and  Robert  Wisdame,  afterwards  Archdeacon 
of  Ely,  appended  a  translation  of  it  to  the  metrical  version  of  the 
psalms,  by  Steinhold  and  Hopkins.  It  commences  with  the 
lines: 

"Preserve  us,  Lord,  by  Thy  dear  word. 
From   Pope   and   Turk,   defend   us,   Lord." 

The  cruelties  of  Tamerlane  had  already  caused  thousands 
of  Armenian  families  to  emigrate  still  westward ;  all  these,  and 


74  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

those  dwelling  in  Cilicia,  Cappadocia,  Pontus,  and  Asia  Minor, 
became  subjects  to  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

Sultan  Mohammed  II.,  the  most  remarkable,  perhaps,  of 
all  the  Sultans,  stormed  and  took  the  city  of  Constantinople, 
which  was  henceforth  to  be  the  seat  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

The  siege  and  fall  of  Constantinople  rank  among  the 
most  imposing  events  in  the  transition  from  ancient  to  modern 
history.  Constantine  XL,  the  last  of  the  Greek  Caesars,  had 
appealed  for  help  to  the  Christian  powers  of  Europe — but  in 
vain.  The  disputes  between  the  Eastern  and  Western  churches 
had  rendered  the  prospect  of  the  fall  of  the  former  a  matter 
of  indifference,  if  not  an  object  of  desire,  to  the  papal  see. 

The  spirit  of  the  Crusades  was  also  largely  quenched, 
and  so  the  citadel  of  Eastern  Christendom,  in  its  hour  of  su- 
preme need,  was  left  to  its  own  unaided  resources.  We  can- 
not rehearse  the  story  of  the  fifty-three  days'  siege.  The 
forces  of  the  attack  and  the  defence  were  in  sad  and  suggestive 
contrast. 

Around  a  city,  whose  Greek  population  the  recent  calam- 
ities had  reduced  to  about  100,000  souls,  with  an  enfeebled  gar- 
rison, there  gathered  the  258,000  soldiers  of  the  Turk,  with 
320  sail,  including  all  kinds  of  craft. 

The  day  fixed  for  the  final  onslaught,  i.  e.,  May  29,  1453, 
was  set  apart  by  the  Sultan  Mohammed  II.  as  a  religious  fes- 
tival. The  preceding  night  witnessed  a  magnificent  illumina- 
tion of  the  Moslem  camp  and  ships,  transforming  the  harbor 
of  the  Golden  Horn  and  its  vicinity  into  a  scene  of  splendor 
such  as,  perhaps,  had  never  been  witnessed  before,  or  was  ever 
to  be  witnessed  again  in  the  history  of  Oriental  display. 

The  stated  calls  to  prayer  rose  upon  the  still  air  without, 
while  the  pathetic  cry  of  Kyrie  eleison  resounded  within  the 
doomed  city. 

The  attack  commenced  in  the  early  morning,  and  by  mid- 
day Mohammed  II.  was  riding  in  triumph  into  his  new 
capital  by  the  gate  of  St.  Romanus.  He  rode  past  the  dead 
body  of  the  Greek  emperor,  buried  beneath  a  heap  of  the  slain. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS,  75 

The  grand  old  emperor,  whose  courage  had  supported 
his  people  through  the  horrors  of  the  siege,  had  already  taken 
his  last  sacrament  in  the  church  of  St.  Sophia,  and  bidden 
farewell  to  his  household,  ere  he  went  forth  cheerfully  to  sec- 
rifice  his  life  in  defence  of  the  throne  of  the  Caesars.  But  the 
heroic  effort  was  in  vain. 

The  blow  long  pending  had  fallen;  the  Roman  Empire 
was  no  more. 

Sultan  Mohammed  II.,  who  captured  the  city  of  Constan- 
tinople, established  an  Armenian  patriarchate  there  in  1461, 
A.  D. 

The  first  patriarch  was  Havaguem,  the  Bishop  of  Broosa, 
with  certain  privileges,  and  as  well  as  the  representative,  and 
the  responsible  one  for  his  nation. 

The  first  patriarch  Havaguem  was  a  friend  of  the  Sultan 
Mohammed  II.  had  two  motives  in  this,  first,  to  have  an  Ar- 
menian ecclesiastical  centre  in  Constantinople  for  the  nucleus 
of  a  strong  Armenian  settlement  there,  to  play  off  against  the 
Greeks  from  whom  the  city  was  taken  and  who  might  be  dan- 
gerous, whereas  the  feud  between  Armenians  and  Greeks 
would  make  each  weaken  the  other.  Second,  to  have  a  hos- 
tage for  the  Armenians,  responsible  for  their  not  breaking  into 
revolt;  not  at  all  for  the  benefit  of  the  Armenians,  but  for  that 
of  the  Sultan.  The  same  reason  obtains  to  this  day;  if  there 
was  no  patriarch  their  cause  would  be  much  better  off.  After 
the  establishment  of  this  patriarchate  the  Armenians  had  no 
more  kings  or  princes;  their  political  head  was  the  patriarch. 
Even  after  the  patriarchate  was  established  they  were  no  safer. 
They  yielded  to  the  Sultans,  they  became  slaves  to  the  Sultans, 
but  the  Persian  Mohammedans  were  foes  of  the  Turkish  Mo- 
nammedans,  and  Armenia,  as  of  old  in  Roman  times,  was  the 
battleground. 

After  some  bloody  conflicts  in  Persia  and  Armenia  by 
hostile  claimants  for  supremacy  over  these  countries,  Shah 
Ismail  had  found  the  Suffavean  dynasty  of  Persia  in  1499,  A. 
D.     The  Suffaveans  claimed  that  AH,  the  fourth  caliph,  would 


-(>  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

have  been  the  immediate  successor  of  the  prophet  Mohammed 
and  the  head  of  Islamism  had  Abubekr  Omar,  and  Osman  not 
usurped  themselves  and  seized  his  right.  They,  moreover, 
claimed  lineage  from  AH  and  thus  the  lawful  successors  of 
Mohammed.  The  Osmanli  Sultans  repudiated  this  right  and 
descent.  This  difference  between  the  Mohammedan  Turks 
and  Persians  furnished  these  two  Islam  nations  with  an  occa- 
sion of  constant  war  and  bloodshed.  But  alas!  the  noble  land 
of  Ararat  had  to  furnish  them  the  battlefield,  and  the  unfor- 
tunate "House  of  Togarmah"  to  suffer  the  doleful  consequen- 
ces of  their  sanguinary  conflicts. 

In  the  time  of  Sultan  Ahmed  and  Shah  Appas,  the  latter 
a  "magnificent  barbarian,"  was  one  of  the  Shahs  of  Suffavean 
dynasty,  and  he,  preparing  for  war  with  the  Turks,  fearing 
that  he  might  be  compelled  to  cede  Armenia  to  the  latter,  he 
gave  orders  to  his  army  to  immediately  vacate  as  many  cities 
and  towns  as  possible,  and  to  burn  them  to  ashes,  and  drive 
the  inhabitants  into  captivity.  Within  a  short  time  many  a 
city  and  town  lay  in  ruins,  and  the  country  was  converted  into 
a  fearful  condition  of  desolation.  Thousands  sought  refuge 
in  the  mountains  and  caves.  Some  found  a  refuge  but  others 
found  only  the  enemy,  and  fourteen  thousand  families  were 
led  into  captivity. 

This  great  host  of  captives  was  composed  of  the  venerable 
patriarch,  bishops,  priests,  vartabeds,  old  men  and  women, 
and  children  of  all  ages,  mothers  with  their  infants  in  their 
arms,  baptizing  them  with  their  tears;  the  gallant  looking 
voung  men  and  maidens.  These  all  indiscriminately  were 
driven  by  the  Persian  soldiers  to  the  bank  of  the  Araxes,  where 
some  rafts  and  galleys  were  in  readiness  to  hasten  their  cross- 
ing the  swift  waters  of  the  river.  Many  gallant  husbands  and 
knightly  brothers  who  were  determined  to  protect  their  beau- 
tiful but  unfortunate  wives  and  sisters,  even  unto  death,  found 
waterv  graves  in  the  river  Araxes  from  the  hands  of  the  brut- 
allv  lustful  soldiers  and  officers.  Opposite  Ispahan  these  cap- 
tives were   settled   and   built   New  Jula   (some  write   Julpa). 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  77 

The  Jula  proper  in  Armenia  was  destroyed  by  Shah  Abbas. 
The  contest  between  the  Turks  and  Persians  over  Armenia 
lasted  more  than  two  centuries,  beginning  in  1512,  A.  D.,  by 
Sultan  Selim  I.,  till  the  early  part  of  the  last  century.  Hardly 
had  they  signed  a  treaty  of  peace  when  there  was  another 
power  creeping  down  the  Caucasus.  Peter  the  Great  of  Rus- 
sia was  too  great  to  miss  the  opportunity  of  taking  a  portion 
of  that  historic  land  at  Ararat.  His  successors  too,  very 
faithful  to  the  charge  delivered  to  them  by  him,  though  faith- 
less to  their  promises,  did  the  same. 

The  Russians  contended  with  the  Persians  over  a  portion 
of  Armenia  and  other  provinces  belonging  to  the  latter  from 
1772 — 1829.  In  this  contest  the  Armenians  rendered  a  signal 
service  to  the  Russians  and  decided  the  victory  for  Russia. 
The  promise  of  liberty  for  their  heroic  service  and  bravery 
made  by  the  Russians  was  intended  to  be  abject  servitude 
and  ignominious  exile. 

From  18 1 3  to  1829,  the  Armenians  appeared  to  think  their 
emancipation  at  hand. 

Russia  stood  in  need  of  them  to  make  a  diversion  against 
the  Ottoman  forces,  and  held  out  to  them  the  hope  of  be- 
coming an  independent  principality,  under  the  protection  of  the 
Czar.  Her  promises  were  believed,  and,  in  their  devotion  to 
their  destined  liberator,  they  withstood  for  more  than  six 
weeks  an  army  of  eighty  thousand  Persians  who  were  marching 
against  Russia,  and  prevented  them  from  crossing  their  fron- 
tier, but  these  services  reaped  a  poor  reward,  for  not  only  were 
the  Russians  faithless  to  their  promises,  but  they  seized  the 
opportunity  of  some  trifling  disturbance  in  the  country  to  lay 
violent  hands  on  the  venerable  Archbishop  Narses,  who  was 
dragged  in  the  first  place  to  St.  Petersburg,  and  afterwards  ban- 
ished to  Bassarabia,  whilst  several  of  the  Armenian  chiefs  were 
scattered  in  exile  through  foreign  countries  or  carried  off  to 
Russia  to  be  heard  of  no  more. 

Russia  also  wrested  from  the  degenerate  Turkish  Empire 
at  times,  especially  in   1878,  after  the  Russo-Turkish  war,  a 


78  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

large  territory  and  the  important  city  of  Kars  of  Armenia.  As 
it  has  been  already  said,  the  unfortunate  land  of  Ararat  is  now 
divided  among  these  three  empires,  the  Russian,  Persian  and 
Turkish,  the  largest  portion  of  it  being  still  under  the  rule  of 
the  latter. 

From  the  above  brief  history  given  in  a  cursory  manner 
it  will  be  easily  understood  that  the  Armenians  have  been  sub- 
jected to  all  kinds  of  cruelties.  Owing  to  the  calamitous  wars, 
merciless  persecutions,  voluntary  and  involuntary  exiles,  and 
emigrations  into  different  countries,  they  have  been  often 
justly  compared  to  the  Jews  scattered  like  them  all  over  the 
globe.  The  Armenians  are  met  with  in  every  commercial  city 
throughout  Europe  and  Asia,  but  the  great  majority  of  the 
nation  still  dwells  in  the  land  of  Ararat  and  in  the  Turkish  Em- 
pire. There  are  over  two  hundred  thousand  Armenians  in 
the  city  of  Constantinople,  and  as  many  in  other  cities  of  Euro- 
pean Turkey  and  other  European  countries. 

The  number  of  Armenians  in  Asia  Minor  and  Armenia 
proper  under  the  Turkish  rule  does  not  fall  below  two  millions 
and  a  half.  The  three  or  four  vilayets  (provinces)  of  Erzerum, 
Diarbekr,  Harpoot,  and  Kurdistan  contain  many  villages, 
peopled  entirely  by  Armenians,  and  in  these  provinces,  not- 
withstanding frequent  emigration  (owing  to  the  atrocities  of 
the  Kurds  and  Turks)  the  Armenians  preserve  a  numerical 
superiority  over  the  Turkish  and  Turcoman  races. 

The  Armenians  live  in  their  respective  villages,  towns  and 
cities.  In  those  cities  and  towns  where  they  are  not  the  only 
inhabitants,  but  there  are  other  nationalties  like  the  Turks 
and  Greeks,  the  Armenians  live  in  certain  districts  clustered 
by  themselves,  having  a  sufficient  number  of  churches  and 
schools  attached  to  them  for  their  religious  and  educational 
wants.  The  dwellings  in  the  villages  and  towns  in  the  in- 
terior are  of  primitive  style,  either  being  of  unhewn  stone 
entirely,  or  half  of  stone  and  half  of  sun-dried  bricks  with  flat 
roofs;  first  large  logs  or  beams  laid  crosswise  and  supported 
with  strong  pillars,  then  covered  with  roots  and  earth  and  dirt, 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  79 

with  a  thickness  of  two  or  three  feet,  and  then  hardened  to 
prevent  leaking.  But  sometimes,  "through  idleness  of  the 
hands  the  house  droppeth  through."  (Ecclesiastes  x.  18), 
Proverbs  xix.  13,  and  xxvii.  15.) 

The  Armenians  living  in  large  towns  and  cities  are  en- 
gaged in  various  occupations  of  life.  The  following  trades  are 
almost  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  the  Armenians  in  Asiatic 
and  partly  in  European  Turkey:  Locksmithing,  blacksmith- 
ing,  coppersmithing,  goldsmithing,  watchmaking,  shoemak- 
ing,  tailoring,  weaving,  printing,  dyeing,  carpentry,  masonry, 
architecture,  etc. 

And  some  are  grocery,  hardware,  and  all  sorts  of  store- 
keepers, and  some  others  are  peddlers,  traveling  merchants, 
merchants,  money  brokers,  (sarafs),  bankers,  lawyers  and  phy- 
sicians. "The  'Armenian  nation ,'  "  says  a  writer,  "is  the  life  of 
Turkey.'1  Another  says,  "They  are  a  noble  race,  and  have 
been  called  the  Anglo-Saxons  of  the  East.  They  are  an  ac- 
tive and  enterprising  class.  Shrewd,  industrious  and  perse- 
vering, they  are  the  bankers  of  Constantinople,  the  artisans 
of  Turkey,  and  the  merchants  of  Western  and  Central  Asia." 

Hardly  will  it  be  necessary  to  adduce  numerous  state- 
ments of  many  European  and  American  observers,  some  of 
whom  know  the  Armenians  far  better  than  many  an  Armenian 
himself,  but  let  us  suffice  with  the  following  testimony  of  Rev. 
I  )r.  H.  G.  O.  Dwight,  one  of  the  first  missionaries  of  the 
American  Board  among  the  Armenians. 

"The  principal  merchants  are  Armenians,  and  nearly  all 
the  great  bankers  of  the  (Turkish)  governments;  and  whatever 
arts  there  are  that  require  peculiar  ingenuity  and  skill,  they 
are  almost  sure  to  be  in  the  hands  of  Armenians,  in  one  word, 
they  are  the  Anglo-Saxons  of  the  East." 

The  above  statements  are  made  undoubtedly  and  com- 
paratively of  the  modern  Armenians,  but  in  order  that  the 
reader  might  not  be  misled  to  lightly  think  of  the  Armenians  of 
old  as  lacking  the  ingenuity,  skill,  and  the  spirit  of  enterprise 
we  will  cite  also  the  statements  from  secular  and  sacred  his- 


80  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

torv  to  show  that  the  ancient  Armenians  were  not  much  be- 
hind the  Anglo-Saxonism  of  the  Armenians  of  the  present 
time. 

Herodotus,  the  great  historian,  who  lived  in  the  fifth  cen- 
tury before  the  Christian  era,  tells  us  that  next  to  the  marvel- 
ous city  of  Babylon  were  the  boats,  constructed  in  Armenia 
by  the  Armenian  merchants  in  the  following  manner: — 

"But  the  greatest  wonder  of  all  that  I  saw  in  the  land, 
after  the  city  itself,  I  will  now  proceed  to  mention.  The  boats 
which  came  down  the  river  (Euphrates  to  Babylon  are  circu- 
lar, and  made  of  skin.  The  frames,  which  are  of  willow,  are 
cut  in  the  country  of  the  Armenians  above  Assyria,  and  on 
these,  which  serve  for  hulls,  a  covering  of  skin  is  stretched 
outside,  and  thus  the  boats  are  made,  without  either  stem  or 
stern,  uite  round  like  a  shield.  They  are  then  entirely  filled 
with  straw,  and  their  cargo  is  put  on  board,  after  which  they 
are  suffered  to  float  down  the  stream.  Their  chief  freight  is 
wine,  stored  in  casks  made  of  the  wood  of  the  palm-tree. 
They  are  managed  by  two  men,  who  stand  upright  in  them, 
each  plying  an  oar,  one  pulling  and  the  other  pushing.  The 
boats  are  of  various  sizes,  some  larger,  some  smaller;  the 
biggest  reach  as  high  as  five  thousand  talents  burthen.  Each 
vessel  has  a  live  ass  on  board;  those  of  large  size  have  more 
than  one.  When  they  reach  Babylon  the  cargo  is  landed  and 
offered  for  sale,  after  which  the  men  break  up  their  boats, 
sell  the  straw  and  frames,  and  loading  their  asses  with  the 
skins,  set  off  on  their  way  back  to  Armenia.  The  current  is 
too  strong  to  allow  a  boat  to  return  up-stream,  for  which  rea- 
son they  make  their  boats  of  skins  rather  than  wood.  On 
their  return  to  Armenia  they  build  fresh  boats  for  the  next 
voyage."  * 

The  prophet  Ezekiel,  in  his  enumeration  of  the  ancient 
merchant  nations  who  were  engaged  in  mercantile  pursuits 
with  the  merchant  nations  of  the  Phoenicians  in  the  marts  of 
the  commercial  city  of  Tyre,  speaks  of  the  Armenians  under 

•RaWllnson'8  Herodotus,  book   1,  page  11)4. 


AND    THE    ARMENIANS.  8l 

the  popular  appellation  of  "the  house  of  Togarmah,"  "They  of 
the  house  of  Togarmah  traded  in  thy  fairs  with  horses  and 
horsemen  and  mules."   (Ezekiel  xxvii.,  14). 

The  descendants  of  Togarmah,  on  account  of  their  in- 
dustry, ingenuity,  and  intelligence,  have  accumulated  great 
wealth,  and  demanded,  yea  extorted,  from  the  indolent  Turks 
high  trusts  in  the  government  and  its  affairs;  but  by  the 
jealousy,  cruelty,  and  cupidity  of  the  latter,  many  of  them 
have  been  precipitated  from  their  elevated  state  and  prosperity 
into  terrible  misery,  often  ending  only  with  execution,  as  the 
following  and  similar  inscriptions  on  their  tombstones  and 
on  the  pages  of  history  will  abundantly  prove: — 

"The  most  remarkable  circumstance  is  that  those  Arme- 
nians who  have  undergone  execution  have  the  modes  of 
their  death  commemorated  on  their  sepulchres  by  the  effigies 
of  men  being  hung,  strangled  or  beheaded.  In  explanation  it 
is  stated  that  having  become  wealthy  by  their  industry,  they 
suffered  as  victims  to.  the  cupidity  of  former  governments,  not 
as  criminals;  and  hence  their  ignominious  death  was  really 
honorable  to  them  and  worthy  of  a  memorial.  An  inscription 
on  one  of  the  tombs  of  this  class  is  as  follows : — 

"You  see  my  place  of  burial  here  in  this  verdant  field. 

I  give  my  goods  to  the  robbers, 

My  soul  to  the  regions  of  death ; 

The  world  I  leave  to  God, 

And  my  blood  I  shed  in  the  Holy  Spirit. 

You  who  meet  my  tomb, 

Say  for  me 

'Lord,   I   have   sinned.' 

1 197."  * 

It  was  Sultan  Mohammed  II.  who  first  appointed  Bishop 
Havaguam,  of  Broussa,  patriarch  over  the  Armenians  in  his 
dominions  in  1461.  This  custom  of  appointing  of  the  patri- 
archs by  the  Sultans  of  Turkey  continued  for  a  long  time. 
But  it  did  not  prove  to  be  the  proper  way  on  account  of  the 

•The  Turkish  Empire,  page  261. 


82  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

abuses  of  procuring  the  office,  and  unqualified  persons  often 
obtaining  the  appointment  by  the  influence  of  their  friends. 

The  nation,  therefore,  obtained  the  right  of  appointing 
their  own  patriarch  from  the  Porte ;  this  national  appointment, 
however,  had  to  be  ratified  by  the  Sultan  of  Turkey. 

At  two  different  times  two  more  grants  were  received 
from  the  Porte,  namely,  to  have  two  distinct  councils,  the  one 
ecclesiastical  and  the  other  civil.  The  former  was  composed 
of  fourteen  clergymen,  the  latter  of  twenty  members  from  the 
laity,  and  the  members  of  these  councils  were  also  elected  by 
universal  suffrage;  the  patriarch  was  the  chairman  of  both  of 
those  councils. 

The  Ecclesiastical  Council  has  its  sphere  of  action  in  re- 
ligious matters  and  is  the  highest  authority  in  the  Turkish  Em- 
pire. The  Civil  Council  is  the  civil  authority,  and  has  four  sub- 
councils  under  its  supervision  through  which  to  operate, 
namely :  Council  of  Revenue,  Council  of  Expenditure,  Judica- 
tory Council,  and  Educational  Council.  These  names  indi- 
cate the  sphere  of  their  activity.  This  mode  of  operation  or 
division  of  the  work  is  carried  out  into  the  provinces  of  the 
Turkish  Empire,  wherever  there  are  sufficient  Armenians  to 
justify  the  existence  of  these  councils.  And  all  the  councils 
and  sub-councils  in  the  provinces  and  in  the  districts  of  the 
capital  are  amenable  to  the  General  Ecclesiastical  and  Civil 
Councils,  and  these  councils  are  responsible  to  the  patriarch 
and  the  patriarch  to  the  Porte. 

Although  such  grants  have  been  made  and  privileges  ac- 
corded and  many  other  promises  of  reforms  uttered  and  re- 
corded by  the  Turkish  government  at  various  times  to  amelio- 
rate the  oppressed  condition  of  the  Armenians,  yet  most  of 
these  grants,  privileges,  and  promises  now  have  their  exist- 
ence only  as  dead  letters. 

It  has  been  said  before  that  the  Armenians  are  now, 
more  or  less,  scattered  all  over  the  globe,  like  the  Jews.  The 
condition  of  this  in  India  is  far  better  than  that  of  those  in 
Persia,  Turkey  and  Russia.    Being  subject  to  a  comparatively 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  83 

just  and  Christian  government  they  enjoy  all  civil  and  religious 
privileges,  consequently  they  are  both  wealthy  and  influential, 
and  some  hold  important  positions  in  the  queen's  government 
in  India. 

At  Calcutta  they  have  a  bishop,  churches,  schools,  and  an 
Armenian  press.  They  have  better  educational  advantages, 
both  in  the  English  and  the  Armenian  languages.  The  Arme- 
nians are  also  conversant  with  the  language  of  the  country, 
wherever  they  are  found. 

The  Armenians  in  Persia,  or  under  the  Persian  rule,  have 
not  a  very  desirable  condition,  from  a  religious  and  educa- 
tional point  of  view.  And  those  especially  living  in  Western 
Persia,  or  Pers-Armenia,  are  also  subject  to  all  sorts  of  cruel- 
ties by  the  hands  of  the  Kurds,  with  whom  they  unfortunately 
live. 

The  most  of  them,  however,  are  at  this  time  free  from 
the  present  tribulation  that  their  brethren  are  undergoing  in 
the  hands  of  "the  unspeakable  Turk."  In  the  summer  of  1890 
many  Armenians  found  refuge  in  Persia  from  the  atrocities  of 
the  Kurds  and  Turks.  The  Shah  of  Persia  is  very  anxious  to 
get  as  many  Armenians  as  possible  into  his  kingdom,  know- 
ing the  value  of  their  industry,  intelligence  and  useful  occu- 
pations. 

Russia  having  wrested  from  Persia  and  Turkey  a  large 
portion  of  Armenia  in  this  century,  there  are  now  over  one 
million  Armenians  in  the  Russian  provinces  of  Armenia,  be- 
side a  good  number  of  those  in  the  commercial  cities  of  the 
same  empire. 

The  financial  condition  of  the  Armenians  in  Russia  might 
be  pronounced  pretty  fair.  "The  Anglo-Saxons  of  the  East" 
have  proved  their  shrewdness  in  business  and  industry;  in 
character  there,  too,  and  according  to  a  recent  writer,  in  the 
city  of  Titlis  money  is  controlled  by  the  Armenians.  But  from 
a  religious  and  national  point  of  view  the  Armenians  in  Rus- 
sia are  in  a  serious  danger.  The  policy  of  the  government  is 
to  Russianize  other  nations,  both  ethnically  and  ecclesiastically. 


84  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

The  Russian  government  took  occasion  of  a  trifling  disturb- 
ance and  issued  an  order  to  take  possession  of  the  Armenian 
schools,  and  this  order  was  carried  out  by  military  force  in 
1885,  while  the  late  Catholicos  has  not  yet  succeeded  to  his 
predecessor's  vacant  post. 

The  properties,  consisting  in  real  estate  of  the  monastery 
of  Echmiadzin,  where  the  seat  of  the  Catholicos  is,  were  seized 
upon  by  the  government,  and  the  monastery  and  its  schools 
were  supported  by  the  governmental  money  for  a  few  years, 
but  this  support  was  gradually  reduced,  so  much  so  that  now 
the  inmates  of  the  monastery  can  hardly  live  on  it,  and  the 
monastery  is  not  able  to  support  any  schools  as  it  used  to  do 
before  with  the  plenteous  income  from  the  numerous  villages 
and  farms. 

The  very  country  where  the  forefathers  of  the  Armenians 
lived  centuries  before  the  Russian  nation  had  any  existence, 
or  if  any.  it  was  in  the  embryonic  state  among  the  barbarous 
Scythians,  and  by  the  very  bravery  and  lives  of  many  Armeni- 
ans this  country  was  extorted  from  the  Turks  for  Russia,  and 
it  is  strange,  but  nevertheless  a  fact,  that  the  Armenian  can- 
not own  land  in  his  own  country,  because  he  is  a  subject  of 
the  Russian  government. 

In  the  summer  of  1890,  while  the  country  of  Armenia,  un- 
der the  Turkish  rule,  was  in  a  turbulent  condition,  some  Ar- 
menians crossed  the  boundary  line  and  fled  into  an  Armenian 
monastery  in  Russian  Armenia  for  a  refuge  from  the  Kurds 
and  Turks.  Most  naturally  were  they  protected  and  cared 
for  by  the  priests  and  monks  in  the  monastery.  This  was  a 
pretense  for  the  government  to  demand,  or  rather  order,  the 
imprisonment,  and  afterwards  the  exile,  of  those  clergymen 
who  sympathized  with  their  persecuted  brethren  and  cared  for 
them. 

It  will  be  a  violation  of  our  intention  and  the  limits  of 
brevity  of  this  present  work  to  dilate  on  this  subject,  to  point 
out  the  unjust  policy  of  the  Russian  government,  and  her 
constant  effort  to  absorb  the  Armenian  nation  and  church  in 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  85 

her  dominions  by  compulsive  teaching  of  Russian  language 
instead  of  the  Armenian  in  the  Armenian  schools. 

The  Armenians  have,  unfortunately,  learned  cordially  to 
hate  the  Turks  on  account  of  their  cruelties  for  centuries.  The 
Russians  also  are  making  themselves  as  detestable  as  the 
Turks,  not  only  to  the  Armenians,  but  also  to  all  other  na- 
tions who  love  justice  and  delight  in  mercy. 

The  Armenians  now  number  more  than  four  million  in 
different  countries  in  the  world,  of  whom,  two  million,  five 
hundred  thousand  are  in  the  Turkish  Empire;  one  million,  five 
hundred  thousand  are  in  Russian  Armenia  and  other 
parts  of  the  same  empire;  five  hundred  thousand  are  scattered 
through  Persia,  India,  Burmah,  Egypt  and  other  parts  of 
Asia;  one  hundred  thousand  are  scattered  through  Europe 
and  the  United  States;  the  total  number  of  Armenians  being 
four  million,  six  hundred  thousand  on  the  globe. 

Probably  about  one  half  of  the  population  of  Turkish 
Armenia  now  is  Mohammedan,  composed  of  Turks  and 
Kurds.  The  former  are  mostly  found  in  and  near  the  large 
cities,  such  as  Ezzingan,  Baibourt,  Erzerum  and  Van,  and  the 
plains  along  the  northern  part.  The  Kurds  live  in  their  moun- 
tain villages  over  the  whole  region.  The  term  Kurdistan, 
which  in  this  region  the  Turkish  government  is  trying  to  sub- 
stitute for  the  historical  one  Armenia,  has  no  political  or  geo- 
graphical propriety  except  as  indicating  the  much  larger  area 
over  which  the  Kurds  are  scattered.  In  this  vague  sense  it 
applies  to  a  stretch  of  mountainous  country  about  fifteen  hun- 
dred miles  in  length,  starting  between  Erzingan  and  Malatiah, 
and  sweeping  east  and  south  over  in  Persia  as  far  as  Karman- 
shah. 

The  number  of  the  Kurds  is  very  uncertain,  neither  the 
Sultan  nor  the  Shah  of  Persia,  ever  attempted  a  census  of 
them;  and  as  they  are  very  indifferent  taxpayers,  the  revenue 
tables — wilfully  distorted  for  political  purposes —  are  quite  un- 
reliable. 

From  the  estimates  of  British  consular  officers  there  ap- 


86  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

pear  to  be  about  one  and  a  half  million  Turkish  Kurds,  of 
whom  about  six  hundred  thousand  are  in  the  vilayets  of  Erz- 
erum,  Van  and  Bitlis,  and  the  rest  in  the  vilayets  of  Harpoot, 
Diarbekr,  Mosul,  and  Bagdad.  This  is  a  very  liberal  estimate. 
There  are  also  supposed  to  be  about  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  in  Persia. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

WHAT  WAS  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ARMENIAN  NATION   BEFORE 
THE  CONVERTED    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

It  is  not  possible  to  give  specific  information  on  the 
original  forms  of  the  religion  of  the  Armenian  race.  The 
culture  and  civilization  of  the  West  had  begun  to  penetrate 
into  Armenia  with  the  victorious  legions  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans.  Another  of  the  many  deluges  which  have  swept 
over  this  unhappy  land  was  showing  tokens  of  subsidence, 
and  the  ark  was  once  more  nearing  a  place  of  rest. 

We  have  acknowledged  from  the  book  of  Genesis,  "And 
Noah  builded  an  altar  unto  the  Lord"  (Genesis  ix.,  20.) 

The  Bible,  modern  scholarship,  and  the  Armenian  tradi- 
tion concur  on  the  question  that  the  ark  of  Noah  rested  "upon 
the  mountains  of  Ararat,"  or  Armenia.  Again,  we  learn  from 
the  Bible  that  "God  spake  unto  Noah,  saying,  "Go  forth  out 
of  the  ark,"  and  Noah  came  out  of  the  ark  and  all  those  that 
were  with  him,  and  he  builded  an  altar  unto  the  Lord,  "and 
offered  burnt  offerings  on  the  altar."  This  fact  will  entitle 
Armenia  to  claim  to  be  the  country  where  a  true  and  pure 
divine  worship  was  first  practised  after  the  Deluge.  The  tra- 
dition of  the  Armenians  coincides  with  the  fact  in  stating  that 
the  primitive  religion  of  the  people  was  simple  and  pure 
monotheism,  in  form  patriarchal,  Noachian.  This  tradition 
has  for  its  support  both  the  Bible  and  the  science  of  religion. 

Prof.  Max  Muller  tells  us  that  "religion  is  not  a  new  in- 
vention. It  is,  if  not  as  old  as  the  world,  at  least  as  old  as  the 
world  we  know.  As  soon,  almost,  as  we  know  anything  of 
the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  man,  we  find  him  in  possession 
of  religion,  or  rather  possessed  by  religion."     Thus  find  we 


88  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

Noah  and  his  descendants  in  possession  of  or  rather  possessed 
by  religion. 

The  Bible  furnishes  sufficient  facts  to  assert  that  this  pure 
monotheistic  worship  in  its  patriarchal  form  was  perpetuated 
among  the  descendants  of  Noah,  especially  in  the  family  of 
Shem.  More  than  four  centuries  after  the  building  of  the  first 
altar  unto  the  Lord  we  find  Abraham  called  out  of  his  coun- 
try and  the  people  by  Jehovah,  to  become  the  head  of  a  nation 
through  whom  the  knowledge  of  the  only  one  true  God  should 
be  perpetuated.  God's  calling  Abraham  out  of  his  country  and 
people  was  not  to  make  him  a  true  worshipper  of  Himself, 
but  He  said  to  him,  "I  will  make  of  thee  a  great  nation." 

Another  example  of  the  true  worshipper  of  God  in  the 
time  of  Abraham  was  Melchizedek  (king  of  righteousness), 
"King  of  Salem  (peace),  who  was  the  high  priest  of  the  most 
high  God."  (Genesis  xiv.,  18).  Melchizedek  was  not  only  a 
monotheist,  but  also  the  priest  of  a  Monotheistic  faith.  He 
reigned  over  his  people  and  on  whose  behalf  he  officiated  as 
the  high  priest  of  the  most  high  God.  Now,  therefore,  it  ought 
to  be  admitted  that  not  only  solitary  individuals  like  Abram 
and  Melchizedek,  but  the  people  of  the  latter  also  were  the 
true  worshippers  of  God.  Another  example:  Job,  his  family 
and  his  friends,  they  were  also  true  worshippers  of  God.  They 
belonged  to  the  eastern  nations,  they  might  be  from  Armenia. 

The  Bible  is  not  a  universal  history,  were  it  so,  well  might 
we  have  expected  it  to  mention  other  nations  and  their  re- 
ligious beliefs ;  though  what  little  it  incidentally  gives,  or  states 
in  regard  to  them  is  marvelowsly  accurate. 

The  Armenian  tradition  that  their  primitive  religion  was 
pure  monotheism,  therefore,  is  neither  incredible  nor  unten- 
able, but  on  the  contrary  it  is  most  probable  and  almost  cer- 
tain, supported  by  the  analogy  of  the  Bible. 

The  investigations  of  modern  scholarship  maintain  the 
idea  and  render  it  almost  a  moral  demonstration  that  the 
primitive  religions  of  the  ancient  nations  were  of  a  Monotheis- 
tic type,  if  not  a  pure  Monotheism,  at  least  they  were  not  very 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  89 

far  from  it.  Prof.  Max  Muller,  of  Oxford,  England,  in  his 
lectures  on  the  "Origin  and  Growth  of  Religion,"  says  that 
"The  ancient  Aryans  felt  from  the  beginning,  aye,  it  may  be, 
more  in  the  beginning  than  afterwards,  the  presence  of  a  Be- 
yond, of  an  Infinite,  of  a  Divine,  or  whatever  else  we  may  call 
it  now;  and  they  tried  to  grasp,  and  comprehend  it,  as  we  all 
do,  by  giving  to  it  name  after  name."  It  is  conceded  by  the 
scholars  that  the  ancient  Armenians  were  closely  connected 
with  the  ancient  Aryans,  that  they  were  Aryans  and  their 
legitimate  descendants  now  speak  a  language  which  modern 
ethnologists  decidedly  pronounce  to  belong  to  the  Aryans  cr 
Indo-Germanic.  Although  we  do  not  know  when  the  separa- 
tion of  the  Aryans  took  place,  we  can  safely  say  that  the  above 
statement  of  Prof.  Max  Muller  is  also  perfectly  applicable  to 
the  ancient  Armenians,  yet  we  are  not  able  to  say  how  long 
such  a  purity  of  faith  lasted  in  Armenia. 

The  human  mind  is  capable  of  progress,  but  when  it  is 
left  to  itself  is  sure  to  retrograde  and  degenerate.  This  is  veri- 
fied in  the  case  of  almost  all  nations  and  in  the  history  of  all 
religions  of  the  world. 

"That  religion  is  liable  to  corruption  is  surely  seen  again 
and  again.  In  one  sense  the  history  of  most  religions  might 
be  called  a  slow  corruption  of  their  primitive  purity."  Divine 
aid,  especially  in  religion,  is  therefore  absolutely  necessary  for 
a  true  progress.  Armenia  left  to  herself  fell  into  a  gross  form 
of  idolatry. 

Her  fall  must  have  been  hastened,  if  not  caused,  by  her 
idolatrous  neighbors,  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians.  For  the 
idolatry  which  we  find  in  the  early  history  of  the  Armenians  is 
decidedly  like  that  of  Assyro-Babylonians.  It  is  not  the  same 
religion  adopted  and  practised  by  the  Armenians,  but  it  is  mod- 
elled after  the  Assyrian. 

Anterior  to  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  of  Armenia,*  the 
people  must  have  had  an  idolatry  similar  to  the  Sabeism  of 
Babylonia,  which  was  afterwards  shaped  to  the  Assyrian  style, 
with  its  distinctive  character.     One  of  the  inscriptions  fur- 


90  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

Irishes  us  with  a  long  list  of  the  gods  and  the  regulations  for 
sacrifices  daily  to  be  offered  to  them. 

There  are,  however,  three  other  gods,  which  stood  apart 
by  themselves  at  the  head  of  the  Pantheon.  These  are  Khal- 
dis,  Teisbas  (the  air  god),  and  Adinis  (the  sun  god).  But  Khal- 
dis  is  the  supreme  god  and  the  father  of  other  gods;  and  in 
addition  to  these  every  tribe,  city  and  fortress  seem  to  have 
its  respective  god.  Some  other  gods  are  Anis  or  Avis  (the 
water  god),  Agas  (the  earth  god),  Dhuspuas  (the  god  of  Tosp, 
the  ancient  name  of  the  city  of  Van),  Selardis,  (the  moon  god), 
Sardis,  (the  year  god).  The  Armenians  in  this  period,  do  not 
seem  to  have  any  goddess.  Soris  is  found  only  once  men- 
tioned in  the  inscriptions  and  is  translated,  "queen,"  yet  it  is 
supposed  to  have  been  borrowed  from  the  Assyrian,  Istar. 
"Whether  all  the  other  gods  are  the  children  of  the  supreme 
god  Khaldis,  or  they  are  subordinate  to  him  and  separate  from 
his  numerous  offsprings,  it  is  not  quite  clear.  The  latter,  how- 
ever, is  most  likely  the  case,  because  the  Khaldians  (the  chil- 
dren of  Khaldis)  and  other  gods  have  their  separate  offerings 
assigned  to  them  according  to  their  importance. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  Armenian  culture,  civilization, 
and  religion  were  very  much  influenced  by  the  Assyrians  while 
the  latter  were  in  the  height  of  their  power.  From  the  follow- 
ing citation  it  will  be  seen  a  resemblance  of  the  religions  of 
these  two  nations  and  they  might  have  also  the  same  origin 
and  the  growth: — 

"The  rise  of  Semitic  supremacy  was  marked  by  the  reigns 
of  Sargon  I.  and  his  son,  Noram-Sin.  The  overthrow  of  Sar- 
gon's  dynasty,  however,  was  soon  brought  about  through  the 
conquest  of  Babylonia  by  Khammaragas,  a  Kossacon  from 
the  mountains  of  Elam.  Before  the  Kossocan  conquest  the 
Babylonian  system  of  religion  was  already  complete.  It 
emanated  from  the  primitive  Accadian  population,  though  it 
was  afterwards  adopted  and  transformed  by  their  Semitic  suc- 
cessors. The  sorcerer  took  the  place  of  the  priest,  magical  in- 
cantations the  place  of  the  ritual,  and  the  innumerable  spirits 
the  place  of  gods. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  91 

By  degrees,  however,  these  earlier  conceptions  became 
modified,  a  priesthood  began  to  establish  itself;  and  as  a  nec- 
essary consequence  some  of  the  elemental  spirits  were  raised 
to  the  rank  of  deities. 

The  old  magical  incantations,  too,  gave  way  to  hymns  in 
honor  of  the  new  gods,  among  whom  the  sun  god  was  espe- 
cially prominent,  and  these  hymns  came  in  time  to  form  a  col- 
lection similar  to  that  of  the  Hindu  Rig-Veda,  and  were  ac- 
counted equally  sacred.  This  process  of  religious  development 
was  assisted  by  the  Semitic  occupation  of  Babylonia.  The 
Semites  brought  with  them  new  theological  conceptions. 
With  them  the  sun  god,  in  his  two-fold  aspect  of  benefactor 
and  destroyer,  was  the  supreme  object  of  worship,  all  other 
deities  being  resolvable  into  phases  or  attributes  of  trie  su- 
preme Baal.  At  his  side  stood  his  female  double  and  reflection, 
the  goddess  of  fertility,  who  was  found  again  under  various 
names  and  titles  at  the  side  of  every  other  deity.  The  union 
of  these  Semitic  religious  conceptions  with  the  developing  creed 
of  Accad  produced  a  state  religion,  watched  over  and  directed 
by  a  powerful  priesthood,  which  continued  more  or  less  unal- 
tered down  to  the  days  of  Nebuchadnezzar  and  his  successors. 

It  was  this  state-religion  that  was  carried  by  Semitic  As- 
syrians into  their  homes  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris,  where  it 
underwent  one  or  two  modifications;  in  all  essential  respects, 
however,  it  remained  unchanged. 

With  the  rise  of  the  Medo-Persian  Empire  a  new  religion 
rises  from  obscurity  to  prominence  in  Western  Asia.  This  is 
the  religion  of  Zoroaster.  This  was  the  religion  with  which 
Christianity  had  so  nobly  contended  since  the  introduction  of 
the  latter  into  Armenia,  until  the  former,  in  complete  despair 
and  as  a  vanquished  foe,  almost  disappeared  from  existence. 
It  is  generally  believed  that  Zoroaster  was  a  real  person  and 
the  founder  of  this  religion,  which  is  called  after  his  name, 
Zoroastrianism.  There  is,  however,  a  great  uncertainty  about 
the  period  of  his  earthly  existence;  some  would  make  him  a 
contemporary  with  Moses,  and  others  with  David  and  Solo- 


92  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

mon.  It  is  very  probable,  however,  that  he  lived  even  in  a  good 
deal  later  period  than  these  Israelitish  kings. 

Zoroastrianism  is  a  dualistic  religion.  It  teaches  that 
there  are  two  uncreated  beings,  Ormazed,  the  supreme  good, 
and  Ahriman,  the  evil;  and  Ormazed  created  the  earth,  the 
heavens,  and  the  man,  and  that  man  is  created  free.  Ahriman 
is  the  evil  and  evil-doer,  and  in  constant  war  with  Ormazed; 
this  world  is  their  battle-field.  There  are  inferior  good  spirits 
which  are  called  genii,  who  are  the  instruments  of  Ormazed, 
but  the  fire  alone  was  the  personification  of  the  son  of  Ormazed, 
and  therefore  an  object  of  veneration  and  worship. 

The  abominable  religion  of  the  ancient  Babylonians  must 
have  had  a  great  influence  even  over  the  religion  of  Zoroaster, 
for  we*  find  that  the  Persians  and  Armenians  had  also  similar 
gods,  like  Mithea,  sungod,  and  Anahita,  the  goddess  of  water. 
The  magi  were  the  priests  of  Zoroastrianism,  with  a  high  priest 
of  this  order  who  was  called  in  Armenian  language  Mogbed, 
(the  head  or  the  leader  of  magi).  No  doubt  this  was  the  re- 
ligion of  the  Armenians  for  nearly  nine  centuries,  from  the 
end  of  the  seventh  century  B.  C,  to  the  end  of  the  third  century 
of  our  era  (or  A.  C).  Possibly  there  were  some  modifications 
and  additions  from  the  Grecian  polytheism  after  the  conquest 
of  Alexander  the  Great. 


ABGAR,  THE  FIRST  CHRISTIAN  KING  ON  THE  EARTH. 


CHAPTER  V. 

FIRST    INTRODUCTION    OF   THE    GOSPEL   IN    ARMENIA. 

At  the  time  of  our  Lord's  birth,  Armenia  was  divided  into 
separate  portions,  called  respectively  Great  and  Little 
Armenia. 

The  latter  district  extended  from  the  Gordyian  Moun- 
tains to  the  Euphrates,  and  had  as  its  capital  the  Greek  city 
of  Nieibis  (or  Niezib,  in  Turkish).  Greek  art  and  civilization 
had  long  exercised  a  great  influence  upon  the  whole  of  Syria 
and  Mesopotamia;  but  the  Roman  and  Greek  writers  seem  to 
regard  the  Kingdom  of  Osroene  or  Osrhoene,  as  that  of  Ar- 
menia Minor  was  generally  styled,  as  in  large  measure  Syrian. 
As  is  well  known,  the  Roman  government  claimed  the  suze- 
rainty over  Mesopotamia;  and  Arsham,  who  died  King  of 
Osrhoene  in  B.  C.  3,  and  left  his  title  to  his  son  Abgar,  was 
in  reality  little  else  than  their  deputy,  holding  his  position 
like  Herod  the  Great  in  Palestine,  only  by  the  favor  of  his 
emperial  master. 

Abgar,  being  devoted  to  the  service  of  the  heathen  gods, 
refused  to  permit  the  image  of  Augustus  to  be  erected  in 
the  temples  of  his  dominions.  Herod  Antipas,  learning  this, 
laid  a  charge  against  him  before  the  emperor,  and  accused 
him  of  disloyalty.  Finding  that  all  his  efforts  to  clear  him- 
self were  in  vain  and  offended  at  the  treatment  accorded  at 
Rome  to  the  ambassadors  he  had  sent  to  plead  his  cause, 
Abgar  determined  to  revolt  from  the  Roman  yoke,  and  to 
cast  in  his  lot  with  kindred  family  who  then  held  the  throne 
of  Persia.  With  this  object  in  view  he  removed  the  seat  of 
rule  the  Nieibis  to  Edessa,  and  began  to  strongly  fortify 
the  latter  city.     Moses  of  Khorene  tells  us  that   the  King 


94  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

carried  with  him  to  his  new  capital  the  images  of  the  gods 
whom  he  worshipped  and  the  religious  archives  stored  up  in 
the  temples  at  Xieibis.  Just  when  Abgar  thought  everything 
was  ripe  for  rebellion,  relying  on  the  assistance  of  the  Partis- 
ans, Arshavir,  the  Parthian  King,  died  and  left  his  kingdom 
a  prey  to  confusion  and  civil  war.  Abgar  felt  himself  called 
upon  to  restore  order,  and  accordingly  marched  into  Persia 
and  put  an  end  to  the  strife  which  had  there  broken  out 
between  the  rival  claimants  to  the  vacant  throne  (A.  D.  21). 
This  expedition,  through  God's  good  providence,  was  over- 
ruled to  the  conversion  of  Abgar,  and  to  the  opening  up  of 
both  Armenia  and  Persia  to  the  light  of  the  Gospel.  The 
story  is  told  by  Eusebius  and  by  the  ancient  Armenian  his- 
torian, Moses  of  Khorene,  who  profess  to  have  learnt  it 
from  the  archives  of  the  kingdom  of  Osroene,  written  in 
Syriac. 

On  his  expedition  to  Persia,  Abgar  was  struck  with  a  very 
severe  illness,  which  some  Armenian  writers  tell  us  was  lep- 
rosy, and  which  all  the  skill  of  his  court  physicians  was  power- 
less to  heal.  While  in  vain  that  the  Roman  Emperor  Tiberius 
had  been  informed  of  his  intended  rebellion,  and  believing 
that  Abgar's  expedition  into  Persia  had  been  undertaken 
mainly  with  the  hope  of  entering  into  an  alliance  with  that 
empire,  was  about  to  inflict  on  him  condign  punishment.  In 
order  to  avert  this,  Abgar  in  the  first  place  entered  into  an 
alliance  with  Aretes,  King  of  Arabia  Xabataca,  whose  daughter 
Herod  Antipas  had  divorced,  and  sent  a  body  of  Armenian 
troops  to  aid  Aratos  in  his  war  against  Herod.  Herod's  army 
was  defeated  with  great  slaughter;  but  the  Romans,  hearing 
of  the  trouble  brewing  in  Armenia,  Mesopotamia  and  Syria, 
sent  Marinus  to  Csesarea  as  governor,  with  a  large  army,  with 
orders  to  restore  order.  Hearing  of  this,  Abgar  sent  three 
Armenian  nobles  of  high  rank  to  Marinus  at  Caesarea,  together 
with  a  copy  of  the  treaty  he  had  made  with  Artoshes,  the 
new  King  of  Persia,  that  the  Romans  might  understand  that 
he  was  loyal  in  his  allegiance  to  the  Emperor,  and  had  no 
intention  of  rebelling. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS. 


95 


The  ambassadors  were  received  with  great  honor  by 
Marinus  at  Eleutheropolis,  and  succeeded  in  their  efforts  to 
prevent  a  breach  between  the  Emperor  and  King  Abgar. 
But  their  visit  to  Palestine  had  another  and  a  far  more  im- 
portant result,  for  there  had  heard  the  fame  of  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth, whose  miracles  of  healing  were  then  attracting  great 
attention;  of  some  of  these  they  were  enabled  to  become  eye- 
witnesses themselves.  On  their  return  to  Armenia,  these 
nobles,  remembering  that  their  sovereign  had  completely 
failed  to  obtain  healing  by  ordinary  means,  informed  him  of 
the  miraculous  power  and  the  Messianic  claims  of  Jesus. 

The  whole  Eastern  world  was,  as  Suetonius  informs  us, 
at  that  time  full  of  expectation  that  a  great  ruler  would  soon 
appear  in  Judea,  and  establish  his  dominion  over  the  whole 
world.  The  coincidence  between  the  Messianic  prophecies 
and  hopes  of  the  Jews  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  strange  and 
only  slightly  less  clear  traditions  of  the  advent  of  a  great  De- 
liverer preserved  in  the  Zend  Avesta  of  Persia  and  the  Sibyl- 
line books  of  ancient  Rome  and  represented  to  us  by  Virgil's 
glorious  Fourth  Eclogue,  on  the  other,  had  doubtless  turned 
towards  Jerusalem  the  eyes  of  pious  and  truth-seeking  men 
everywhere.  The  visit  of  the  Persian  Magi  to  the  Infant 
at  Bethlehem  is  only  one  indication  of  the  extent  of  this  ex- 
pectant longing.  It  is  not  at  all  unlikely,  therefore,  that  Abgar, 
on  hearing  the  report  of  his  messengers,  was  greatly  stirred. 
At  last  the  long-expected  prince  had  appeared  and  not 
only  so,  but  was  actually  healing  in  Galilee  and  Judea  those 
afflicted  with  diseases  which  no  human  skill  could  cure. 
Abgar's  bodily  affliction  naturally  made  him  the  more  anxious 
to  benefit  at  least  by  the  healing  power  of  our  Saviour,  and 
the  news  which  his  messengers  brought  him  left  no  doubt 
of  his  willingness  and  ability  to  grant  his  request. 

Abgar,  therefore,  wrote  a  letter  to  Christ,  and  sent  it 
to  Him  to  Jerusalem  by  the  hands  of  his  courier  Ananias. 
Later  Armenian  accounts  state  that  Ananias  was  also  ac- 
companied by  an  able  portrait  painter,  who  had  received  orders 


g6  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

from  the  King  to  request  permission  to  paint  Christ's  picture 
and  bring  it  back  with  him  to  Edessa  to  Abgar,  in  case  the 
Saviour  Himself  declined  to  accede  to  the  King's  written 
request  that  He  would  come  and  heal  him  of  his  illness. 

The  King  also  directed  his  messengers  to  offer  sacrifices 
to  the  true  God  in  his  temple  at  Jerusalem. 

They  readied  the  Holy  City  on  the  very  day  of  Christ's 
triumphal  entry  into  Jerusalem,  and  endeavored  to  approach 
Him  in  order  to  present  the  King's  letter  to  Him.  Not  being 
able  to  do  so,  however,  they  gave  it  to  Philip,  and  asked  him 
to  deliver  it  and  to  procure  them  an  audience.  This,  we  are 
told,  is  the  meaning  of  the  incident  recorded  in  the  twelfth 
chapter  of  St.  John's  Gospel  (vv.  20-34),  where  certain  Greeks, 
who  had  come  up  to  worship  at  the  Feast  of  the  Passover, 
were  presented  to  our  Lord.  Christ  saw  in  them  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  heathen  world,  then  longingly  looking  for 
some  one  to  give  them  the  light  of  life,  and  prophesied  that 
His  crucifixion  would  draw  all  men  unto  Him  (ver.  32).  The 
Armenian  tradition  that  these  "Greeks"  were  Abgar's  messen- 
gers has  nothing  directly  contrary  to  it  in  the  use  of  the  word 
"Greeks"  in  the  original,  since  this  word  is  often  used  in 
the  Xew  Testament  to  denote  any  who  were  not  Jews. 

The  tradition  is  at  least  as  old  as  Moses  of  Khorene  (died 
A.  D.  487),  who  mentions  it  as  an  undisputed  fact  (Paton- 
Hayots-Hat.  ii.  Kl.  29),  and  was  probably  believed  long  before 
then,  for  in  the  ancient  Armenian  version  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment made  by  St.  Mesrap  (died  A.  D.  441),  the  word  Greeks 
in  this  passage  is  translated  merely  "heathens." 

Eusebius,  and  after  him  Moses  of  Khorene,  gives  a  ver- 
sion of  the  letter  which  King  Abgar  is  said  to  have  addressed 
to  Christ  on  this  occasion,  and  which  Eusebius  tells  us  was 
still  preserved  in  his  own  time  in  the  library  at  Edessa  (Uorfa 
in  Turkish).  Although  all  modern  critics  rightly  regard  this 
letter  and  our  Lord's  supposed  reply  to  it  as  undoubtedly 
spurious,  it  may  be  of  interest  to  enter  them  both  here  in  order 
to  complete  the  narrative.     Abgar's  letter  ran  as  follows : 


AND     THE    ARMENIANS.  97 

Abgar,  Toporch  of  Edessa,  to  Jesus  the  good  Saviour, 
who  has  appeared  in  Jerusalem,  greeting: 

"I  have  heard  of  Thee  and  Thy  cures,  which  are  being 
performed  by  Thee  without  drugs  and  medicines.  For,  as 
report  says,  Thou  dost  cause  the  blind  to  recover  sight,  the 
lame  to  walk,  and  Thou  cleansest  lepers,  and  drivest  out  un- 
clean spirits  and  demons,  and  healest  those  tormented  with 
long-continued  sickness,  and  raisest  the  dead,  and  having 
heard  all  these  things  about  Thee,  I  decided  in  my  mind  on  one 
of  two  conclusions — either  that  Thou  art  God,  and  having 
come  down  from  heaven  Thou  doest  these  things — or  that, 
doing  these  things,  Thou  art  the  Son  of  God. 

"Therefore,  I  now  write  and  entreat  of  Thee  to  take  the 
trouble  to  come  to  me,  and  to  heal  the  disease  which  I  have. 
For  indeed  I  hear  that  the  Jews  are  murmuring  against  Thee 
and  wish  to  do  Thee  violence.  I  have  a  very  small  and  noble 
city,  which  will  suffice  for  us  both.1'  (Euseb.  Eccl.  Hist,  i.,  13; 
M.  Khorene,  Paton,  Hayots,  Hat.  ii.,  Kl.  99). 

When  our  Lord  had  this  letter  and  saw  Abgar's  faith 
in  Him,  he  directed  Thomas  to  write  a  reply  to  it  from  His 
own  dictation,  in  the  following  terms: 

Blessed  art  thou,  who  hast  believed  in  Me  without  having 
seen  Me.  For  it  is  written  concerning  Me  that  those  who 
have  seen  Me  will  not  believe  Me,  and  that  those  who  have 
not  seen  Me  shall  themselves  believe  and  live.  But  where 
thou  didst  write  to  Me  to  come  to  thee  it  is  necessary  that  I 
should  here  accomplish  all  those  things  for  which  I  was  sent, 
and  that,  after  having  accomplished  them,  I  should  then  be 
taken  up  to  Him  who  sent  Me;  and  when  I  am  taken  up,  I 
shall  send  unto  thee  a  certain  one  of  My  disciples,  that  he 
may  heal  thy  sickness  and  give  life  to  thee  and  to  those  that 
are  with  thee. 

Having  received  this  letter,  Abgar's  messengers  entreated 
permission  to  paint  a  portrait  of  Christ,  in  accordance  with 
their  master's  orders.  The  required  permission  was  accorded 
them,  but  the  painter's  hand  refused  to  perform  its  task  in 


98  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

delineating  Christ's  divine  features.  Seeing  this,  the  Saviour 
took  a  towel  and  applying  it  to  His  countenance,  impressed 
upon  it  a  marvellously  correct  picture*  of  Himself,  and  sent 
it  to  Abgar  with  the  letter  above  quoted,  intending  thereby 
to  relieve  his  sufferings  and  strengthen  his  faith.  Abgar,  on 
reading  the  letter  and  receiving  the  portrait,  worshipped  the 
letter,  and  took  courage,  looking  hopefully  for  the  fulfilment 
of  Christ's  promise  to  send  him  a  teacher  to  instruct  and  heal 
him. 

This  story  as  here  related  bears  distinct  marks  of  a  later 
age,  and  it  has  received  much  embellishment  from  later  Ar- 
menian writers  which  is  not  to  be  met  with  in  Moses  of  Kho- 
rene  or  in  Eusebius.  The  story  of  the  portrait  and  of  the 
worship  paid  to  it  by  Abgar  could  not  have  originated  until  the 
worship  of  pictures  had  been  introduced  into  the  church. 
The  letters  ascribed  to  Abgar  and  to  Christ  bear  evident  marks 
of  a  clumsy  forgery.  The  account  of  the  interview  which 
Abgar's  messengers  had  with  our  Lord  is  possibly  but  not 
probably  true.  On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  rash  to  reject  the 
whole  narrative  (as  many  writers  do)  as  fabulous. 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  better  to  hold  that  a  certain  substra- 
tum or  residum  of  fact  underlies  the  tale.  It  is  certainly 
neither  impossible  nor  improbable,  taking  into  consideration 
all  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  that  the  fame  of  our  Lord's 
miracles  of  healing  may  have  reached  Edessa,  and  that  Abgar's 
illness  may  have  led  him  to  look  longingly  for  the  arrival  in 
his  country  of  a  disciple  of  Christ  able  to  heal  him.  This  would 
prepare  the  way  for  a  favorable  reception  being  given  to  the 
earliest  preachers  of  the  Gospel  on  their  arrival  in  Mesopota- 
mia and  Osraene,  which  must  have  taken  place  soon  after 
the  Ascension. 

After  that  Jesus  was  received  up,  says  the  old  Syriac  docu- 
ment quoted  by  Eusebius.  Judas  (who  is  also  called  Thomas) 
sent  up  to  him  (Abgar)  as  an  apostle  Thaddeus,  one  of  the 

*  See    Appendix. 


THADDAEUS  AND  BARTHOLOMEW. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  99 

seventy.  He  coming  dwelt  with  Tobias,  the  son  of  Tobias, 
and  when  news  was  heard  concerning  him,  it  was  told  to 
Abgar,  saying:  "An  apostle  of  Jesus  has  come  hither,  accord- 
ing as  He  wrote  unto  thee."  Thaddeus  accordingly  began  in 
the  power  of  God  to  heal  every  sickness  and  every  disease, 
so  that  all  men  did  marvel.  But  when  Abgar  heard  of  the 
might  and  wonderful  works  which  he  did,  and  how  he  healed, 
he  suspected  that  this  was  he  of  whom  Jesus  had  written,  say- 
ing: "When  I  am  taken  up,  I  shall  send  unto  thee  a  certain 
one  of  My  disciples,  who  shall  heal  thy  sickness." 

Having,  therefore,  called  for  Tobias,  with  whom  abode, 
he  said,  "I  have  heard  that  a  certain  mighty  man  has  come 
and  has  abode  in  thy  house ;  bring  him  unto  me."  And  Tobias 
came  unto  Thaddeus,  and  said  to  him:  "Abgar  the  Toporch 
called  for  me  and  bade  me  bring  thee  to  him,  in  order  that  thou 
mightest  heal  his  sickness."  And  Thaddeus  said,  "I  go  up, 
since  I  have  been  sent  unto  him  with  might."  Tobias,  there- 
fore, having  risen  early  on  the  morrow,  and  taking  Thaddeus 
with  him,  came  to  Abgar.  And  when  he  came  suddenly  upon 
his  entrance  the  King's  nobles  also  being  present  and  standing 
there,  a  great  sight  was  manifested  to  Abgar  in  the  counte- 
nance of  the  apostle,  Thaddeus.  And  when  Abgar  saw  this 
lie  worshipped  Thaddeus.  Astonishment  also  fell  upon  all 
those  that  stood  by.  For  they  did  not  see  the  sight,  which 
appeared  to  Abgar  only.  And  he  asked  Thaddeus,  "Art  thou 
in  truth  a  disciple  of  Jesus  the  son  of  God,  who  said  unto 
me,  T  shall  send  to  thee  a  certain  one  of  my  disciples,  who 
shall  heal  thee  and  give  thee  life?'"  And  Thaddeus  said, 
"since  thou  hast  firmly  believed  in  Him  who  sent  me,  there- 
fore was  I  sent  unto  thee.  And  again,  if  thou  believest  in 
Him,  according  as  thou  believest  the  desires  of  thine  heart 
shall  be  granted  thee."  And  Abgar  said  unto  him,  "I  believe 
in  Him  so  much  that  I  desired  to  take  a  force  and  destroy  the 
Jews  who  crucified  Him,  only  that  I  was  hindered  from  doing 
so  by  the  empire  of  the  Romans."  And  Thaddeus  said,  "Our 
Lord  Jesus  hath  fulfilled  the  will  of  His  Father,  and  having" 


IOO  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

fulfilled  it  He  was  received  up  unto  His  Father."  Abgar  saith 
to  him,  "I  also  have  believed  in  Him  and  in  His  Father."  And 
Thaddeus  saith,  "I  therefore  lay  my  hand  upon  thee  in  His 
name."  And  when  he  had  done  this,  he  was  imme- 
diately healed  of  the  sickness  "and  the  disease  which 
he  had.  And  Abgar  marvelled  that,  according  as  he 
had  heard  Jesus,  so  had  he  received  in  reality  from  His 
disciple  Thaddeus,  who  had  healed  him  without  drugs  and 
medicines.  And  not  only  so,  but  Abdus  also,  the  son  of 
Abgar,  who  had  the  gout.  For  the  latter  also,  coming  for- 
ward, fell  at  his  feet.  And  Thaddeus,  having  prayed,  took  him 
by  the  hand,  and  healed  him.  Many  others  also  of  their  fel- 
low citizens  did  the  same  Thaddeus  heal,  doing  wondrous  and 
great  things,  and  preaching  the  Word  of  God.  But  after 
these  things  Abgar  said,  "Thou,  O  Thaddeus,  by  the  power  of 
God  doest  these  things,  and  we  ourselves  marvel  at  thee.  But 
beside  these  things  I  entreat  of  thee  to  narrate  to  me  concern- 
ing the  advent  of  Jesus,  how  it  took  place,  and  concerning  His 
power,  and  by  what  power  He  used  to  do  these  things  of 
which  we  have  heard."  And  Thaddeus  said,  "I  shall  be  silent 
for  the  present,  since  I  was  sent  to  preach  the  Word.  But  on 
the  morrow  assemble  unto  me  all  thy  citizens,  and  unto  them 
I  shall  preach  the  Word  of  God,  and  I  shall  tell  them  about 
the  advent  of  Jesus,  how  it  took  place  and  about  His  mission, 
and  why  He  was  sent  forth  by  the  Father,  and  concerning  the 
might 'of  His  works,  and  the  mysteries  which  He  proclaimed 
in  the  world,  and  by  what  power  He  did  these  things,  and 
concerning  His  new  proclamation,  and  concerning  His  love- 
liness and  humiliation,  and  how  He  humbled  Himself  and 
died,  and  how  He  lessened  His  divine  nature,  and  was  cru- 
cified, and  descended  into  Hades,  and  rent  in  twain  the  middle 
wall  or  partition  which  had  not  been  rent  from  eternity,  and 
raised  the  dead.  For  having  descended  alone,  He 
raised  up  .many  with  Him  unto  His  Father,  and  then 
in  this  way  He  ascended."  Abgar  accordingly  gave 
orders    that    early    on    the    morrow   all    his   citizens    should 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  101 

come  together  and  should  hear  the  preaching  of  Thad- 
detis,  and  after  these  things  he  commanded  to  give  him  gold 
and  treasure.  But  Thaddeus  would  not  accept  it,  saying,  "If 
we  have  left  our  own,  how  shall  we  accept  the  things  of 
others?''    These  things  were  done  1865  years  ago. 

Eusebius  adds  that  the  result  of  Thaddeus'  work  at  Edessa 
was  the  conversion  of  those  that  were  healed  and  their  admis- 
sion into  the  number  of  Christ's  disciples,  and  states  that,  in 
consequence  of  this,  the  whole  of  the  people  of  Edessa  had 
remained  Christians  even  up  to  his  own  time  (Eccl.  Hist.  ii.  1). 
This,  however,  is  incorrect;  though  many  were  Christians  in 
Eusebius'  days. 

Armenian  writers  inform  us  that  Thaddeus,  having  thus 
converted  Abgar  and  his  people,  baptized  them,  and  then  pro- 
ceeded to  erect  a  large  church  in  the  city  of  Edessa.  He  also 
consecrated  as  bishop  of  the  city  a  pious  convert  named  Adde, 
a  silkmaker,  who  had  previously  been  employed  to  make  a 
royal  tiara  for  Abgar.  After  his  conversion,  Abgar,  filled  with 
zeal  for  the  Gospel,  wrote  letters  to  the  Emperor  Tiberius  and 
to  the  King  of  Syria,  and  to  Artashes,  King  of  Persia,  inviting 
them  to  receive  the  Gospel  and  accept  Christ,  as  their  Lord 
and  Saviour. 

Three  years  after  his  conversion  Abgar  died,  and  was 
buried  in  Edessa  (A.  D.  35). 

His  widow  Helene,  was  also  an  earnest  Christian.*  When 
some  years  later  banished  from  Edessa  by  Sanatrouk,  she  went 
to  her  native  city,  Haran,  and  there  ruled  for  a  time.  She  is 
also  said  to  have  been  queen  of  Adiabene.  Somewhat  later  she 
went  to  Jerusalem,  and  Josephus  tells  usf  that  during  the  great 
famine  in  Claudius'  time  (Acts  xi.,  28),  she  bought  a  great 
quantity  of  corn  in  Egypt  and,  at  enormous  expense,  had  it 
carried  to  Jerusalem  and  distributed  it  to  the  poor.    When  she 

♦This  is  what  Moses  of  Khorene  says  (Patur,  Hayots.  Hat.  ii.,  Kl  32), 
but  Josephns  calls  hor  queen  of  Adiabene,  and  gives  quite  a  different  account 
of  her,  saying  that  she  became  a  Jewess,   (Aut.  xx.,  2). 

t(Jos.  Aut.  xx.,  2). 


102  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

died,  a  noble  tomb  was  erected  to  her  memory  in  the  suburbs 
of  the  Holy  City,  in  memorial  of  her  beneficence. 

After  founding  the  Christian  Church  in  Edessa,  Thad- 
deus  went  to  Armenia  proper,  to  the  district  Artoz  or  Shavor- 
shan,  which  was  at  that  time  ruled  over  by  Sanatrouk,  Abgar's 
sisters  son.  The  latter  received  him  kindly,  and  gave  him 
every  opportunity  of  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  people. 

As  a  result  of  this  it  is  said  that  Sanatrouk  and  his 
daughter  Sandoukht,  together  with  not  a  few  nobles  and  very 
many  of  the  common  people,  were  converted  and  received 
baptism.  Thaddeus  consecrated  one  of  his  converts  named 
Zacharias,  bishop,  and  it  is  said  that  the  latter  afterward  carried 
the  Gospel  to  the  Alvanions,  a  tribe  living  on  the  shores  of 
the  Caspian  Sea  at  the  foot  of  the  Caucasus  Mountains. 

Meanwhile  strange  things  were  happening  at  Edessa 
itself.  The  Christians  at  that  city  are  said  to  have  carried  the 
Gospel  into  Persia,  and  the  friendship  and  alliance  which  ex- 
isted between  Artoshes,  King  of  Persia,  and  Abgar  renders 
this  very  probable.  But  on  Abgar's  death,  his  son,  who  is 
called  by  different  writers  Ananias,  Anane,  Ananann,  and 
Anan,  ascended  the  throne  at  Osraene,  and  at  once  apostatized 
and  restored  the  worship  of  the  heathen  gods,  especially  that 
of  Beal,  the  great  tutelary  deity  of  the  city.  The  temples,  which 
had  been  closed  by  Abgar,  were  reopened,  and  a  certain 
amount  of  persecution  was  begun  against  the  Christians.  One 
instance  of  this  in  particular  is  related. 

Ananias  ordered  Bishop  Adde,  who  had  made  a  tiara  for 
Abgar  before  Thaddeus'  arrival  in  Edessa,  to  return  to  his 
old  trade  and  make  one  for  him  also.  Adde  refused,  saying, 
"My  hands  shall  make  a  tiara  for  no  head  which  does  not  bow 
down  to  the  dust  in  honor  of  Christ."  Enraged  at  this  mes- 
sage, Ananias  sent  the  executioner  to  cut  off  both  the  bishop's 
feet. 

This  was  done  as  he  was  seated  at  worship  in  the  church, 
and  resulted  in  his  speedy  death. 

Meanwhile  Senatrouk  was  extending  his  power  in  Ar- 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS. 


I03 


menia,  and  was  plotting  to  make  himself  master  of  the  throne 
of  Asraene.  Great  confusion  and  disorder  followed,  but  was 
ended  by  Ananias'  death  (A.  D.  38),  after  a  reign  of  only  four 
years.  It  is  said  that  his  death  occurred  in  the  following 
manner: 

Ananias  was  having  the  royal  palace  in  Edessa  rebuilt 
with  great  magnificence.  One  day,  while  standing  on  the 
pavement  below,  surveying  the  work,  a  huge  marble  column 
fell  from  the  upper  story  upon  the  King,  striking  him  to  the 
earth  and  crushing  his  legs  so  severely  that  he  died  of  the 
shock.  His  Christian  subjects  saw  in  this  event  a  just  judg- 
ment upon  him  for  the  murder  of  their  good  bishop  Adde, 
and  remarked  upon  the  noteworthy  circumstance  that  the 
King  had  been  smitten  upon  precisely  the  same  part  of  the 
body  where  Adde  had  by  his  orders  been  struck  by  the  exe- 
cutioner's sword. 

Immediately  on  the  news  reaching  him  that  Ananias 
was  dead,  Sanatrouk  marched  to  take  possession  of  Edessa. 
He  seems  to  have  already  apostatized*  from  the  Christian 
faith,  and  consequently  the  Christians  at  that  city  at  first  op- 
posed his  entrance.  But  Sanatrouk  reassured  them  by  binding 
himself  with  an  oath  to  permit  them  the  free  exercise  of  their 
religion.  On  taking  possession  of  Edessa,  Sanatrouk  slew  all 
Abgar's  remaining  sons,  and  banished  his  daughter  and  his 
widow,  Helene,  to  the  latter's  native  city,  Haran,  though  he 
left  her  the  title  of  Queen  Mesopotamia. 

We  have  already  the  rest  of  the  history  of  this  lady. 
Having  thus  removed  all  rivals  from  his  path,  Sanatrouk  felt 
free  to  govern  according  to  his  own  pleasure.  He  rebuilt  in 
the  most  splendid  manner  the  city  of  Nisibis,  which  had  been 
destroyed  by  an  earthquake,  and  set  up  in  the  public  square 
there  a  statue  of  himself  with  a  single  drachma  in  his  out- 
stretched hand,  implying  that  he  had  expended  all  the  rest 
of  his  treasures  in  the  work  of  rebuilding  the  city. 

♦Through  fear  of  the  Armenian  nobles,  who  were  still  heathens,  ac- 
cording to  Moses  of  Khorene, 


104  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

But  Sanatrouk  is  famous,  or  rather  infamous,  for  deeds 
of  a  different  kind  also.  In  direct  contradistinction  to  his 
oath,  he  began  a  most  cruel  persecution  of  the  Christians  in 
which  he  spared  neither  sex  nor  age  throughout  his  domin- 
ions. Among  others  that  fell  victims  to  the  tyrant's  fury  was 
Thaddaeus  himself.  This  apostolic  man,  hearing  of  Sanatrouk's 
apostacv,  returned  from  Cappadocia,  whither  he  had  gone  to 
preach  the  Gospel. 

On  his  way  to  Mesopotamia,  it  is  said,  he  met  five  am- 
bassadors sent  from  Rome  to  Sanatrouk's  court.  One  of  these 
was  a  noble  and  well-born  man  named  Chrysos.  Hearing  the 
Gospel  message  from  Thaddaeus,  they  accepted  it  and  were 
baptized.  Chrysos  himself  was  ordained  presbyter.  These  men, 
in  the  ardor  of  their  new-found  faith,  sold  all  that  they  had 
and  gave  to  the  poor,  and  then  devoted  themselves  to  preach- 
ing Christ  crucified  to  the  people  of  Armenia.  They  seemed 
to  have  formed  a  body  of  itinerant  preachers  from  among  their 
converts,  who  lived  among  the  mountains  and  who,  from  the 
Armenian  translation  of  their  original  leader's  name,  were 
called  Yoskeaukh,  the  "Golden  Ones."  These  men  for  some 
years  continued  their  work  in  Armenia. 

Hearing  of  their  conversions,  Sanatrouk  summoned 
Thaddaeus  to  his  presence  in  Shavarshan,  where  he  then  hap- 
pened to  be.  On  the  arrival  of  the  apostle,  he  was  martyred 
with  many  other  devoted  Christians,  including  Sanatrouk's 
own  daughter,  Sandaukht,  the  first  of  a  noble  band  of  Arme- 
nian women  who  have  not  feared  to  lay  down  their  lives  for 
their  faith  (A.  D.  48).  Tradition  relates  that  miracles  of  heal- 
ing were  wrought  at  Sandaukht's  tomb,  and  that  this  led  to 
the  conversion  of  many  others,  not  a  few  of  whom  wore  the 
martyr's  crown. 

So  in  all  ages  and  in  all  lands  has  the  blood  of  martyrs 
been  the  seed  of  the  Church  of  God. 

Later  legends  add  that  Bartholomew  also  came  to  Arme- 
nia in  A.  D.  50,  bringing  with  him  a  picture  of  the  Virgin 
Mary. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  IO5 

He  is  said  to  have  preached  in  Lower  Armenia,  and  to 
have  made  many  converts,  including  Sanatrouk's  sister  Tha- 
kauhr  (Queen)  and  the  generalissimo  of  his  army. 

Sanatrouk's  fury  was  not  appeased  by  these  fresh  proofs 
of  the  power  of  the  Gospel,  which  he  hated  with  a  renegade's 
hatred.  He  put  his  sister  to  death,  scourged  Bartholomew, 
and  then  crucified  him  in  the  city  of  Arevbanus,  where  his 
tomb  was  long  after  an  object  of  veneration.  Armenian  super- 
stition or  patriotism  claims  that  the  apostle  Jude  also  labored 
in  the  country,  died  and  was  buried  at  Urmia.  The  bones 
of  St.  Thomas,  the  apostle  of  Parthia  and  India,  were  brought 
from  the  latter  country  (where  he  had  been  martyred),  and 
interred  in  Armenia.  St.  Enstathius,  one  of  our  Lord's  seventy 
disciples,  was  martyred  in  the  province  of  Sinnikh,  and  buried 
at  a  place  still  called  Stathew  or  Sather.  Elisha,  one  of  Thad- 
deus'  disciples,  accompanied  by  a  little  band  of  these  devoted 
followers,  preached,  we  are  told,  in  Upper  Armenia,  and  then 
passed  on  to  labor  among  the  Albanians. 

He  was  instrumental  in  bringing  a  very  large  number  of 
these  people  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  finally  died  in 
the  plain  of  Arghann.  Sanatrauk  the  persecutor  reigned  for 
thirty-four  years,  and  having  seen  the  failure  of  his  attempt  to 
crush  the  infant  Christian  Church  in  his  dominions,  was  at  last 
accidentally  killed  by  an  arrow  while  hunting  (A.  D.  65). 

Dr.  Philip  Schaff  says:  "It  is  now  impossible  to  decide 
how  much  truth  there  may  be  in  the  somewhat  mythical  stories 
of  correspondence  between  Christ  and  Abgarus,  and  the  mis- 
sionary activity  and  martyrdom  of  Thaddeus,  Bartholomew, 
Simon  of  Cana,  and  Judas  Lebbeus.  But  it  is  certain  that 
Christianity  was  introduced  very  early  in  Armenia."  How 
much  or  how  little  of  this  account  of  the  first  preaching  of 
the  Gospel  in  Armenia  is  true  must  perhaps  forever  remain 
unknown.  What  we  have  narrated  above  is  the  story  as  told 
by  Armenian  writers  for  the  most  part,  and  believed  by  them 
to  be  correct. 

After  this  time,  Christianity  spread  in  Armenia  as  it  did 


lo6  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

in  other  parts  of  the  Greek  Empire;  rapidly  in  the  cities,  where 
intelligence  was  quick  and  new  ideas  were  welcomed;  slowly 
in  the  country  districts,  where  people  did  not  readily  change. 
Its  first  result  everywhere  was  not  so  much  to  make  people  be- 
lieve in  it  as  to  make  them  disbelieve  in  Paganism;  for  every 
person  who  actually  came  to  believe  in  Christ,  there  were  fifty 
who  ceased  to  believe  in  Jupiter,  or  Bel,  or  Throth,  Vanus,  or 
Astarte. 

There  would  be  a  flourishing  Christian  church  in  a  great 
city  when  most  of  the  people  did  not  have  any  faith  in  any 
religion. 

But  everybody  who  had  a  family  came  gradually  to  think 
very  well  of  a  religion  that  gave  them  the  power  to  teach  chil- 
dren righteousness,  and  enforce  it  by  the  command  of  God, 
and  the  respectable  classes  became  more  and  more  Christian. 

But  the  fact  that  till  two  or  three  centuries  after  Christ 
there  was  no  general  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Pagan  govern- 
ments to  put  down  the  Christian  by  persecution,  shows  that 
not  till  then  did  they  become  so  numerous  as  to  frighten  the 
government  for  fear  they  would  before  long  have  a  majority; 
persecution  means  fear.  The  government  let  the  Christians 
pretty  much  alone,  except  for  little  fits  of  anger  now  and  then, 
till  they  were  afraid  the  growth  of  the  sect  would  overthrow 
themselves  or  bring  on  civil  war. 

The  Christians  had  become  well  established  in  Armenia 
within  a  century  or  so  after  the  death  of  Christ;  but  it  was 
over  a  century  and  a  half  before  they  seemed  an  imminent 
menace  to  the  ruling  class.  Then  a  furious  persecution  began, 
about  the  same  time  as  that  of  Diocletian  in  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, and  indeed,  part  of  the  same  movement.  Diocletian  had 
set  the  persecuting  King  Tiridates  on  his  throne,  and  Tiridates 
had  passed  his  life  from  boyhood  almost  to  old  age  in  the 
Roman  service,  and  had  the  same  ideas  as  the  Pagan  Roman 
upper  classes.  Yet  in  the  providence  of  God  this  same  Tirida- 
tes made  Christianity  supreme  in  Armenia  years  before  Con- 
stantine  made  it  supreme  in  the  Roman  Empire,  thus  making 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  lOj 

Armenia  the  first  Christian  nation.  Might  be  our  readers 
know  that  when  Gregory  the  Illuminator,  who  was  born  (A.  D. 
257),  the  proclaimed  of  the  message  throughout  Armenia,  he 
found  Christians  everywhere,  and  a  church  which,  though 
sorely  persecuted  and  oppressed,  had  existed  from  apostolic 
times.  He  was,  in  fact,  rather  the  restorer  than  the  founder 
of  the  Armenian  Church,  which  became  the  church  of  the 
whole  nation  half  a  century  before  the  cross  was  emblazoned 
on  the  standard  of  Rome.  The  Armenians  may  justly  claim 
to  be  the  oldest  Christian  nation  in  the  world. 

The  Father  of  Gregory,  Prince  Anak,  was  of  the  royal 
family  of  Arsacidae  of  Parthia,  whose  reign  was  overthrown 
by  Artaxerxes,  the  founder  of  the  Sassanian  dynasty  of  Persia. 
But  the  Armenian  branch  of  Arsacidae  was  still  in  full  vigor 
in  the  person  of  Chosroes  I.,  the  King  of  Armenia,  who  had 
tried  to  restore  the  seized  sceptre  of  Power  to  the  deprived 
royal  family  of  Arsacidae  of  Parthia  from  the  revolter,  Artax- 
erxes, the  Persian.  In  order  that  Artaxerxes  might  secure  his 
reign  he  tried  to  subdue  Armenia  too.  But,  failing  to  do  this 
manfully,  he  resorted  to  treachery.  Anak,  the  relative  of 
Chosroes  I., was  induced  by  Artaxerxes,  with  promises  of  large 
reward,  to  play  the  part  of  an  assassin.  It  was  so  arranged 
that  Anak  would  be  chased  out  of  Persia,  being  a  member  of 
the  Arsacidae  dynasty,  a  dangerous  person  to  the  newly-estab- 
lished sovereignty  of  Persia.  "Anak,  with  his  wife,  chil- 
dren, brother,  and  a  train  of  attendants,  pretended  to  take 
refuge  in  Armenia  from  the  threatened  vengeance  of  his  sover- 
eign, who  caused  his  troops  to  pursue  him,  as  a  rebel  and  de- 
serter, to  the  very  borders  of  Armenia."*  Anak  was  received 
by  Chosroes  I.,  who  credulously  listened  to  his  story  and  sym- 
pathized with  him.  Anak  committed  the  crime  of  assassina- 
tion of  the  King,  but  the  King  lived  long  enough  to  request 
the  complete  destruction  of  the  family  of  Anak,  and  Anak  also 
had  no  time  to  effect  his  escape,  and  being  seized  upon,  he 

*The   Seventh   Oriental    Monaroby,   p.   51. 


108  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

received  the  due  recompense  of  an  assassin.  However,  his 
son  Gregory,  who  was  only  on  infant,  was  saved  by  the  faith- 
fulness of  his  nurse,  who  took  him  and  escaped  into  the  city 
of  Caesarea,  Cappadocia,  where  he  was  brought  up  in  a  Chris- 
tian family  with  a  thorough  Christian  education. 

On  the  other  hand,  Artaxerxes  obtained  his  object  with- 
out paying  for  it,  and  hearing  of  the  condition  of  affairs  in 
Armenia,  he  immediately  hastened  thither  with  his  army  and 
took  the  people  by  surprise.  He  doomed  the  family  of  Arsa- 
cidae  to  death,  so  as  not  to  leave  any  to  rival  him  for  the  throne. 
However,  Tiridates,  the  son  of  Chosroes,  escaped  into  the 
Roman  province  of  Armenia,  and  then  to  Rome,  where  he 
received  a  military  training,  and  his  sister  was  hid  in  the  strong- 
hold of  Ani. 

Tiridates  was  welcomed  by  his  people,  who  joined  his 
armv  and  drove  out  of  the  country  their  common  enemy 
(A.  D.  286). 

The  Gregory  was  brought  up  in  Caesarea  as  a  Christian, 
and  was  well  instructed  in  the  Scriptures  and  in  the  Greek 
and  Syriac  languages.  When  he  had  grown  up,  he  married 
a  maiden  named  Mariam,  daughter  of  an  Armenian  who  bore 
the  name  of  David.  Both  were  Christians,  and  must  naturally 
have  told  Gregory  something  of  the  deplorable  heathenism  of 
their  native  land  and  of  the  brave  martyrs  who  had  already 
been  the  first  fruits  of  Armenia  to  Christ.  Of  this  marriage 
two  sons  were  born,  the  elder  named  Vethanes  and  the 
younger  Arestakes. 

Three  years  after  their  marriage,  it  is  said,  Gregory  and 
his  wife  parted  by  mutual  consent.  She  entered  a  nunnery  at 
Caesarea,  taking  her  younger  son  with  her.  Gregory  entrusted 
to  guardians  the  training  and  education  of  the  elder,  and  him- 
self went  to  Rome  to  enter  the  service  of  the  youthful  Prince 
Tiridates  (A.  D.  280),  hoping  by  faithful  and  devoted  service 
in  some  measure  to  atone  to  Khasrov's  son  for  the  crime  which 
Anax  had  committed,  and  of  which  and  his  own  connection 
with  the  perpetrator  Gregory  had  until  very  recently  been  kept 
in  complete  ignorance. 


ST.   GREGORY,   THE  ILLUMINATOR. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  I09 

St.  Gregory  returned  to  Armenia  and  entered  King  Tiri- 
dates'  service,  whose  ''purpose  being  to  win  over  to  eternal 
life,  through  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  the  son  of  him  who  had 
been  slain  by  his  father,  and  thus  to  make  amends  for  his 
father's  crime."  Though  he  suffered  many  a  torture  and  tor- 
ment, and  thirteen  years'  imprisonment  in  a  pit,  yet  this  noble 
Christian  hero  and  apostle  was  determined  "to  win  (the  King) 
over  to  eternal  life,  through  the  Gospel  of  Christ."  Finally, 
the  King  was  converted  and  baptized  by  St.  Gregory,  and 
became  himself  a  worthy  champion  of  the  truth,  and  the  first 
honored  King,  who  proclaimed  throughout  his  dominions  that 
henceforth  the  religion  of  Christ  is  the  religion  of  Armenia. 
The  Armenians  have  been  nationally  converted  to  Christianity, 
from  the  King  to  the  servant;  however,  there  were  some,  es- 
pecially among  the  nobility,  who  with  a  heathenish  tenacity- 
held  on  to  Zoroastrianism ;  but  this  was  for  a  mercenary  pur- 
pose, not  from  a  real  appreciation  of  Zoroastrianism;  for  St. 
Gregory,  by  his  evangelistic  spirit  and  labors,  had  laid  a 
firm  foundation  for  the  religion  of  Christ  in  the  land  of 
Ararat.    (A.  D.  289.) 

He  was,  by  the  request  of  the  King,  sent  to  Csesarea, 
Cappadocia,  to  be  ordained  bishop  over  Armenia  (A.  D.  302). 

The  temples  of  the  idols  in  every  important  city  or  town 
were  pulled  down  and  Christian  churches  in  their  stead  were 
reared.  The  most  splendid  of  all  these  churches  was  Etch- 
miadzin,  "the  descent  of  the  only  begotten,"  which  was  after- 
wards clustered  about  with  other  buildings  and  became  a  mon- 
astery and  the  seat  of  St.  Gregory's  successors  to  his  prelatic 
chair  to  this  day.  This  done,  Gregory  and  Tiridates  set  about 
exterminating  idolatry;  they  smashed  the  idols  and  demol- 
ished the  temples,  the  new  converts  joyfully  assisting  them. 
The  work  of  conversion  went  on  rapidly,  under  the  wonder- 
ful preaching  of  the  Saint,  and  the  zeal  of  the  King;  all  the 
people  converted  were  baptized  by  immersion. 

In  eight  years  the  majority  of  the  Armenian  nation,  many 
millions  in  number,  had  become  Christians.    That  religion  was 


IIO  ILLUSTRATED      ARMENIA 

made  the  State  creed  of  Armenia  in  310,  while  the  Council 
of  Nice,  which  did  the  same  work  for  Rome,  was  not  held  till 
(A.  D.  325). 

Gregory  deserves  every  credit  for  this  magnificent  work; 
but  I  cannot  help  wishing  he  had  been  less  zealous  in  destroy- 
ing the  Pagan  literature,  which  is  a  great  loss  to  the 
world.  However,  Christianity  is  worth  it,  if  we  could  not 
have  it  at  a  less  price. 

Schools,  as  well  as  churches  and  benevolent  institutions, 
were  organized  in  great  numbers  under  Christian  auspices 
during  the  next  two  or  three  centuries,  and  a  brilliant  band  of 
scholars  and  preachers  went  out  from  them,  the  equals  of  any 
in  their  age  and  perhaps  in  any  age. 

During  the  long  reign  of  Tiridates  the  church  greatly 
flourished.  Indeed,  did  St.  Gregory  lay  the  foundation  of  the 
religion  of  Christ  upon  the  immovable  rock  of  the  Word  of 
God. 

Both  the  noble  founder  and  the  valiant  defender  of  that 
divine  faith,  committed  to  their  care  by  King  Jesus,  entered 
their  rest,  after  having  seen  the  prosperous  condition  of  the 
church,  and  were  succeeded  by  their  sons.  However,  the 
power  of  Armenia  was  unequal  to  the  conflicting  forces  on 
either  side,  though  the  descendants  of  Tiridates  held  the  scep- 
tre of  Armenia  nearly  a  century  longer,  but  in  a  very  enervated 
state.  Nevertheless  the  church  of  Armenia  made  a  decided 
advance  within  this  period. 

The  rivalry  between  Rome  and  Persia  grew  fiercer  than 
ever  with  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  for  new  religious 
hate  was  added  to  political  ambition;  and  on  the  side  of  Per- 
sia the  Armenian  difficulties  were  doubled,  for  a  considerable 
part  of  the  Armenians  were  still  Zoroastrians,  and  sympathized 
with  the  Persians  against  their  own  government,  while  many 
of  the  Persians  had  become  Christian,  and  opposed  their 
Pagan  rulers.  Thus  the  Persians  felt  that  they  had  a  civil 
war  on  their  hands  as  well  as  foreign  wars,  and  persecuted 
their  Christians  horribly. 


DERTAD. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  Ill 

On  the  other  hand,  they  had  the  hold  of  the  Pagan  part 
of  the  Armenians  in  invading  or  controlling  that  state;  still 
again,  the  Armenian  Christians  now  favored  the  Romans 
much  more  strongly  than  they  had  before,  because  Rome  was 
now  Christian;  while  on  top  of  all  were  the  great  barons, 
almost  independent  of  the  nominal  Kings,  and  who  favored 
neither  party,  but  wanted  their  feudal  independence. 

Yet  the  Roman  control  of  the  Kingship  for  what  it  was 
worth,  lasted  without  a  break  for  over  half  a  century  after 
the  victory  of  Christianity,  and  over  three-quarters  of  a  cen- 
tury from  the  accession  of  Tiridates;  which  was  due  largely 
to  the  great  ability  of  the  Roman  Emperors,  Diocletian  and 
Constantine,  and  the  excellent  administration  and  military 
organization  they  left,  which  saved  the  eastern  provinces  from 
Persia  for  over  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  Constantine's  death. 
Shahpur  II.  of  Persia,  won  many  victories,  but  he  could  not 
hold  even  the  places  he  captured,  and  he  gained  no  territory 
till  the  death  of  "Julian  the  Apostate"  in  his  Persian  campaign 
of  363.  His  weak  and  frightened  successor  Jovian  surren- 
dered a  great  section  of  the  Eastern  Roman  territory,  and 
still  more  disgracefully  agreed  that  the  Romans  should  not 
help  their  ally  Arshog  or  (Arsaces),  King  of  Armenia,  against 
Shahpur.  Armenia  was  at  once  invaded,  but  she  felt  her 
national  existence  at  stake,  and  fought  with  desperation. 
Though  Shahpur  had  the  help  of  two  apostate  Armenian 
Princes,  Mesurgan  and  Yahan,  and  other  native  traitors,  who 
ravaged  the  country  and  fought  their  King  because  he  was 
a  Christian,  Arshag  held  out  four  years,  aided  by  his  heroic 
though  unprincipled  wife  Parantzem,  and  his  able  chief  com- 
mander Yashag.  Yagharshabad,  Ardashad,  Ervandshad, 
and  many  other  cities  were  taken  and  destroyed;  finally  Arshag 
and  Ya?hag  were  captured.  Arshag's  eyes  were  put  out,  and 
he  was  thrown  into  a  Persian  dungeon  in  Ecbatana;  Vashag 
was  flayed  alive,  and  his  skin  stuffed  and  set  near  the  King. 
Queen  Parantzem  still  refused  to  surrender,  and  with  11,000 
soldiers  and  6,000  fugitive  women  held  the    fortress  of  Ardis 


112  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

fourteen  months,  till  nearly  all  of  them  were  dead  from  hunger 
or  disease;  then  she  opened  the  gates  herself.  Instead  of  hon- 
oring her,  Shahpur,  who  was  a  worthy  predecessor  of  the 
Turks,  had  her  violated  on  a  public  platform  by  his  soldiers, 
and  then  impaled  (638).  Meantime,  her  and  Arshag's  son,  Bab 
(Papa),  had  escaped  to  Constantinople  and  asked  the  help  of 
the  co-Emperor  Valens. 

That  Emperor  hated  to  break  the  treaty,  and  involve 
Rome  in  a  new  Eastern  war;  but  he  could  not  suffer  Persia 
to  be  strengthened  by  the  possession  of  all  Armenia,  and  the 
Roman  statesmen  had  determined  to  end  the  long  struggle 
over  Armenia  by  dividing  it  between  Persia  and  themselves. 
Bab  was  secretly  helped  by  the  Romans;  he  kept  up  a  guerilla 
warfare  in  the  mountains,  and  a  large  part  of  the  Armenian 
people  were  prepared  to  welcome  him  back  to  his  rightful 
throne.  The  Romans  tried  to  keep  within  the  letter  of  their 
treaty  by  not  letting  him  assume  the  title  of  King.  The  Per- 
sians considered  his  support  by  Greek  troops  a  breach  of  the 
treaty,  none  the  less,  and  Yaleus  alternately  aided  and  dis- 
avowed him.  The  matter  was  not  mended  by  the  worthless 
character  of  Bab  himself,  who  murdered  his  best  friends  on 
the  least  suspicion,  and  had  the  incredible  baseness  to  hold  a 
secret  correspondence  with  Shahpur,  the  worse  than  murderer 
of  his  parents.  Finally  the  Romans,  convinced  that  he  must 
be  under  their  watch  if  they  were  to  have  any  security  of  him, 
tolled  him  down  to  Bilicia,  and  prevented  him  from  returning 
by  guards  of  soldiers. 

He  made  his  escape,  and  professed  his  allegiance  to  the 
Romans  as  before;  but  Valens  resolved  to  be  rid  of  him,  and 
had  him  murdered  by  Count  Trojan,  the  Roman  commander 
in  the  East. 

Meantime  a  powerful  Roman  army  under  Count  Trojan, 
and  the  chief  Persian  host,  had  actually  camped  opposite  each 
other  on  the  borders  of  Armenia  (A.  D.  371);  but  neither  side 
wanted  a  general  war  just  then, — Rome  must  have  her  hands 
free  for  the  Goths,  and  Persia  hers  for  the  Mongols. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  113 

Finally,  in  379  (A.  D.),  Shahpur  died,  and  there  was  an 
instant  and  entire  change  in  Persian  policy  toward  Rome,  and 
even  toward  Christianity  for  a  while.  His  brother  and  suc- 
cessor, Ardosher,  was  an  old  man,  and  reigned  but  four  years; 
his  successor,  Shahpur  III.,  at  once  sent  embassies  to  Rome, 
and  made  a  treaty  of  peace  (384).  Finally,  on  the  succession 
of  Bahrom  IV  (Kirman  Shah),  in  390,  that  monarch  arranged 
a  treaty  of  partition  with  Theodosine,  the  Roman  Emperor, 
by  which  Armenia  ceased  to  exist.  The  western  portion  be- 
came a  Roman  province,  the  then  reigning  sovereign,  Arshog 
IV.,  was  made  governor  to  keep  the  people  contented. 

The  eastern  and  much  the  larger  section,  was  annexed  to 
Persia,  under  the  name  of  Persamenia;  and  to  please  the  peo- 
ple, an  Arsacid,  Chasraes  IV.,  was  made  governor,  and  the 
dynasty  was  continued  in  its  rule  over  the  Armenians  till  after 
the  great  Perso-Roman  war  of  421-2,  and  the  persecution  of 
Christians  by  Persia,  which  was  the  pretext  of  it. 

The  persecution  and  the  war  led  to  a  movement  for  Ar- 
menian independence;  after  it  was  over,  Bahrain  V.  at  Persia 
(Gor,  the  Wild  Ass,  "the  mighty  hunter"),  put  a  mere  vassal, 
Ardoshes  IV.,  into  the  governorship;  but  the  great  Arme- 
nian barons  would  not  give  up  the  struggle,  and  this  last  of 
the  Arshagaanian  dynasty  was  removed  in  428  and  Persian 
governors  substituted. 

Thus  ended  the  rule  of  the  line  of  Arshag.  It  was  a 
mighty  race,  and  swarms  with  brilliant  names,  but  in  Persia 
it  was  justly  displaced  by  one  of  better  public  policy;  and  in 
Armenia  the  position  of  the  country  was  fatal  to  it. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PROMINENT  MEN  OF  THE  TERIOD. 

Xicrses  the  Great. — This  was  the  great  founder  of  Arme- 
nian scholarship.  Xicrses,  the  representative  of  Gregory's 
house,  would  most  probably  have  been  chosen  to  occupy  the 
position,  which  might  almost  be  said  to  be  hereditary  in  the 
family  of  the  Illuminator.  He  studied  in  the  Greek  schools 
of  C?esarea  during  boyhood,  had  he  then  been  in  Armenia. 
But  he  was  resident  at  Constantinople,  where  he  became  fa- 
mous for  learning.  He  was  married  to  a  Greek  princess  of  a 
distinguished  house.  And  it  may  well  be  believed  that  the 
King  was  in  no  hurry  to  urge  the  return  and  appointment  to 
the  Archiepiscopal  dignity  of  a  man  likely  to  be  both  strong 
and  good,  and  therefore  bound  to  oppose  him  in  his  evil  con- 
duct. Phoren  occupied  the  patriarchal  throne  for  only  about 
two  years,  dying  in  A.  D.,  364.  On  his  death  it  was  resolved  to 
elect  Xierses  a  Catholicos,  though  he  was  still  absent  from  the 
country.  This  was  done,  and  the  nobles  sent  an  urgent  mes- 
sage to  him,  begging  him  to  return  to  his  fatherland.  Xierses 
acceded  to  their  desire,  and  was* consecrated  at  Csesarea  on  his 
way  to  Armenia. 

When  he  reached  his  native  land,  the  nobles  and  people  re- 
ceived him  with  great  gladness  (A.  D.,  365).  He  immediately 
set  about  the  reformation  of  abuses  which  had  crept  into  the 
church  during  recent  times,  endeavoring  very  successfully  to 
restore  the  strict  and  healthy  discipline  which  had  been  main- 
tained under  his  great  progenitor,  and  to  abolish  the  laxity  of 
morals  and  general  disorganization  which  had  of  late  pre- 
vailed. He  also  introduced  many  ecclesiastical  improvements 
which  he  had  seen  in  Constantinople.     By  the  King's  per- 


NERSE! 


MUSHEGH. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  II5 

mission  he  called  a  great  council  or  synod  of  all  the  bishops 
and  many  leading  nobles,  which  met  at  Ashtishat  in  A.  D.  365, 
the  main  object  of  which  was  the  correction  of  abuses  in  the 
church.  The  chief  of  these  which  were  condemned  at  the 
council  were: 

1.  Marriages  contracted  between  near  relatives,  among 
the  nobles  more  especially,  with  the  object  of  retaining  prop- 
erty in  the  family. 

2.  The  practice  of  indulging  in  excessive  mourning  for 
the  dead,  and  in  conduct  unworthy  of  Christians. 

3.  The  habit  of  expelling  from  the  towns  and  villages 
all  lepers  and  persons  suffering  from  infectious  diseases.  Such 
unfortunates,  besides  the  lame,  the  blind  and  hopeless  incura- 
bles, were  often  left  unaided  to  die  of  starvation. 

He  founded  over  two  thousand  schools  and  benevolent 
institutions  as  well  as  great  numbers  of  churches.  To  put  a  stop 
to  the  latter  practice,  Nierses  was  successful  in  getting  hos- 
pitals and  suitable  asylums  built  in  every  canton  for  the  recep- 
tion of  these  unfortunates.  He  also  erected  orphanages  and 
places  where  widows  and  the  poor  might  receive  help,  and 
succeeded  in  having  taxes  levied  for  their  endowment.  In 
certain  places  where  they  were  most  needed,  he  also  built 
resthouses  for  travellers.  He  was  a  powerful  and  persuasive 
preacher,  and  a  considerable  writer,  part  of  the  church  history 
being  his.  From  these  schools  went  forth  a  very  brilliant  band 
of  scholars,  preachers  and  orators,  the  equals  of  any  in  the 
world. 

It  was  during  his  pontificate  that  the  affairs  of  Arshag  and 
Bab  (or  Pap)  took  place,  and  he  was  intimately  connected 
with  them  till  his  death  at  the  hands  of  the  latter.  Previous  to 
the  desertion  of  Armenia  by  the  Romans  in  363,  they  had 
quarrelled  with  Arshag,  and  sent  an  army  to  punish  him;  but 
on  Nierses'  intercession  with  Yalens  it  was  recalled  and  the 
saint  obtained  high  favor  with  the  emperor. 

Arshag's  conduct,  however,  grew  too  bad  for  endurance; 
he  had  his  father  and  a  relative  named  Kucuel  (of  Guel)  killed, 


Il6  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

and  married  Kuenel's  wife,  Parantzem  (who  afterwards  met 
such  a  horrible  fate),  though  his  own  wife,  Olympias,  was  still 
alive,  but  bribed  a  priest  named  Mrjinnik  to  poison  the  queen 
(  Hympias,  which  he  did  by  mingling  poison  in  the  cup  at 
Holy  Communion.  Pharantzem,  or  Parantzem,  thereupon  be- 
came queen.  Xierses,  the  Catholicos,  finding  admonition  of 
no  avail,  quitted  Yagharshabad  and  went  into  a  convent.  Hut 
Arshag.  getting  into  fresh  difficulties  with  the  emperor  and 
his  own  rebellious  vassals,  besought  the  saint  to  assist  him 
once  more,  and  once  more  Xierses  complied.  He  first  pacified 
the  turbulent  nobility;  then  interceded  with  the  Roman  com- 
mander to  such  effect  that  the  general  withdrew  his  army  and 
went  to  Constantinople  to  justify  himself  to  the  emperor,  tak- 
ing a  letter  to  him  from  Arshag,  and  hostages  for  the  latter's 
loyalty,  and  also  inducing  Xierses  to  accompany  him.  But 
Yalens  was  enraged  at  the  withdrawal,  would  neither  read  the 
letter  nor  see  the  saint,  and  ordered  the  hostages  killed  and 
X'ierses  banished.  The  former  sentence  was  revoked  on  the 
general's  intercession,  but  Xierses  was  shipped  for  his  place 
of  exile.  On  the  way  a  storm  wrecked  the  vessel  on  a  desert 
island,  but  he  and  the  crew  were  saved.  It  was  winter,  and 
they  could  find  no  food  but  the  roots  of  trees,  but  in  a  short 
time  the  sea  miraculously  cast  abundance  of  fish  on  shore,  and 
for  eight  months  they  never  suffered  for  sustenance.  At 
the  end  of  that  time  the  saint  was  set  free. 

After  the  restoration  of  Bab  to  the  land,  though  not  the 
acknowledged  throne  of  his  father,  Xierses,  the  Catholicos, 
convened  an  assembly  of  Armenian  princes  and  ecclesiastical 
heads,  with  the  King,  and  show  them  all  to  mutual  concord 
and  good  behavior,  to  unite  the  land  against  the  Persians,  but 
Bab,  like  so  many  Eastern  potentates  and  indeed  his  father, 
cared  for  nothing  but  to  indulge  his  own  passions,  and  would 
have  sold  his  country  to  Shahpur  if  he  could  have  gotten  his 
price.  Xierses  earnestly  remonstrated  with  him,  but  in  vain. 
Bab  merely  hated  him  for  it,  and  finally  had  secretly  poisoned 
him  (A.  D.,  383X  in  the  village  of  Khakh  in  the  province  of 


ST.    SAHAG   CATHOLICOS. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  I IJ 

Eghueghiatz.  Xierses,  the  Catholicos,  had  been  pontiff  eight 
years,  but  they  were  crowded  with  labors  of  immense  variety 
and  usefulness.  He  left  one  son  (Isaac),  who  eventually  be- 
came pontiff  also. 


MESROP.      SAIIAK  (OR  ISAAC)  AND  THE  ARMENIAN  BIBLE. 

The  great  work  of  the  conversion  of  Armenia  to  the 
Christian  faith,  began  by  Gregory  the  Illuminator,  had  been 
left  unfinished  in  at  least  one  very  important  respect.  Gregory 
had  seen  the  desirability  of  rendering  the  church  of  Armenia 
as  soon  as  possible  independent  of  foreign  missionaries,  and 
had  accordingly  established  schools  for  the  education  of  the 
people,  and  for  the  training  of  indigenous  clergy.  But,  as 
there  was  no  Armenian  literature  worthy  of  the  name  at  that 
time  extant,  and  as  no  suitable  alphabet  capable  of  properly 
representing  the  sounds  of  the  language  had  as  yet  been  in- 
vented, he  had  not  attempted  to  translate  into  the  language 
of  the  people  the  scriptures  and  the  service  books  used  in 
divine  worship.  Greek  and  Syriac  were  carefully  taught  in 
the  numerous  schools  established  throughout  the  country  by 
( iregory,  and  it  became  the  practice  to  read  the  scriptures 
either  in  Greek  or  in  Syriac — whichever  language  the  officiat- 
ing minister  knew  best — and  to  explain  to  the  people  in  the 
vernacular  the  meaning  of  what  they  heard. 

This  was  evidently  only  a  temporary  measure,  and  it 
worked  well  for  a  time.  The  schools  turned  out  a  considerable 
number  of  preachers  and  teachers  able  to  expound  to  the 
people  the  meaning  of  the  Greek  and  Syriac  texts,  and  so  the 
pressing  need  of  an  Armenian  version  was  not  so  much  felt. 
But  during  the  troubles  which  followed  on  Tiridates'  death 
the  schools  gradually  lost  both  teachers  and  pupils.  The  new 
generation  of  clergy  could  indeed  read  the  sacred  texts,  but 
they  understood  them  less  and  less. 


Il8  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

During  the  persecution  under  Meronzhan  the  study  of 
Greek  was,  as  we  have  already  seen,  entirely  prohibited,  and 
all  Greek  books  which  were  found  in  the  country  were  ruth- 
lessly burnt.  No  serious  attempt  seems  to  have  been  made 
to  interfere  with  the  use  of  Syriac  in  worship;  but  the  congre- 
gations accustomed  to  worship  in  Greek  found  their  clergy  in 
most  instances  quite  unable  to  interpret  to  them  the  Syriac 
scriptures.  The  result  was  as  ancient  Armenian  historians  in- 
forms us,  that  the  people  left  their  churches  uncomforted  by 
the  words  of  Life,  which  they  had  heard  with  their  outward 
ears,  but  which  they  had  been  utterly  unable  to  understand. 
Day  by  day  this  state  of  things  grew  worse  and  worse.  Ig- 
norance of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  spread  rapidly,  and 
there  was  great  danger  that  the  people  would  in  consequence 
either  lapse  into  their  old  heathen  practices  or  at  least  be  un- 
able to  withstand  the  efforts  for  their  conversion  to  Magicianism 
made  by  the  Persian  court.  This  was  the  state  of  affairs  which 
led  to  the  invention  of  the  Armenian  alphabet  still  (with  slight 
modifications)  in  use,  and  to  the  ultimate  translation  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  into  that  language. 

This  great  work  was  accomplished  by  the  Catholicos 
Sahak  or  Isaac  in  some  measure,  but  more  particularly  by 
his  famous  associate  and  fellow-laborer,  Mesrop  Mashtats. 

Mesrop  was  born  in  the  village  of  Hatsik,  in  the  canton 
of  Taran.  His  father,  Yartan,  taught  him  a  little  Greek,  and 
when  still  young  he  became  a  pupil  of  Xierses  the  Great,  under 
whom  he  soon  mastered  Greek,  Syriac  and  Persian.  When 
he  grew  up  he  became  for  a  time  one  of  the  court  scribes,  and 
found  his  knowledge  useful  in  that  capacity,  for  at  that  time 
the  letters  and  edicts  of  Armenian  kings  were  generally  pub- 
lished in  all  three  languages.  He  devoted  himself  to  all  secular 
studies,  especially  Greek,  and  became  much  respected  by 
small  and  great,  as  his  friend  and  biographer,  Koriun,  informs 
us.  Wearying,  however,  of  secular  work,  Mesrop  soon  left 
the  court,  and  retiring  to  a  hermitage  with  a  few  disciples,  de- 
voted himself  to  the  practice  of  austerities  and  the  preaching 


**< 


■m 


MESROP,     AS     YOUNG     PRIEST, 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  IlQ 

of  the  Gospel.  He  went  especially  to  preach  in  those  parts 
of  the  country,  such  as  the  canton  of  Gaghtha,  where  heathen 
practices  still  prevailed  among  the  people,  having  never  en- 
tirely ceased.  With  the  favor  and  assistance  of  Sabith  or 
Sabath,  the  chief  of  the  district,  Mesrop  and  his  disciples  were 
enabled  to  work  a  great,  reformation  there,  and  the  gods  are 
said  to  have  fled  in  a  bodily  form  from  them  and  to  have  re- 
tired into  Media. 

Being  well  acquainted  with  Syriac,  Mesrop  himself  did 
not  find  it  a  very  difficult  task  to  translate  orally  to  the  people 
the  passages  of  Scripture  read  to  them  in  church,  but  the  work 
was  far  more  difficult  for  his  disciples  to  perform.  During  the 
time  that  he  spent  in  itinerating  and  preaching  the  Gospel  in 
different  parts  of  the  country,  Mesrop  felt  more  and  more  how 
absolutely  necessary  it  was  for  the  people  to  have  the  Scrip- 
tures translated  into  and  published  in  their  native  tongue. 
But  before  this  could  be  done,  it  was  necessary  to  invent  an 
alphabet  suited  to  the  genius  of  the  language.  Owing  to  the 
number  of  sounds  which  Armenian  possesses,  neither  the 
Greek  nor  the  Syriac,  nor  even  the  pahlavi  alphabet  was  at 
all  suitable  to  write  Armenian  in.  To  the  task  of  devising 
a  really  suitable  alphabet  and  of  having  an  Armenian  version 
of  Scriptures  made,  Mesrop  now  determined  to  devote  all  his 
energies. 

Accordingly,  leaving  his  hermitage,  Mesrop  came  to 
Sahak,  the  Catholicos,  and  told  him  his  plans  (A.  D.,  397). 
This  wise  and  good  man  showed  the  greatest  possible  interest 
in  them,  and  gave  Mesrop  every  encouragement  to  continue 
the  efforts  he  had  already  begun  to  make  with  the  object  of 
devising  an  Armenian  alphabet.  Mesrop  renewed  his  efforts, 
with  fervent  prayer  to  God  for  guidance. 

About  this  time  King  Vramshapouh,  who,  at  the  request 
of  the  King  of  Persia,  had  visited  Mesopotamia  in  order  to 
arrange  a  dispute  which  had  arisen  in  that  country  between 
himself  and  the  Byzantine  court  met  a  Syrian  presbyter 
named  Abel,  who   informed   him   that   a   learned   and   pious 


120  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

Syrian  bishop,  Daniel  by  name,  had  by  him  an  alphabet  which 
had  formerly  been  used  for  writing"  Armenian.  The  King 
took  no  notice  of  this  statement  at  the  time,  but  did  not  forget 
it.  By  Mesrop's  advice,  Sahak  got  Yramshaponh  to  call  a 
great  council  of  the  nobility  and  of  the  bishops  and  principal 
clergy  of  his  realm,  in  order  to  decide  what  steps  should  be 
taken  with  the  object  of  obtaining  an  Armenian  literature. 
The  council  met  at  Yagharshapat  in  A.  D.,  402.  The  King 
himself  was  present  and  mentioned  what  he  had  heard  about 
an  Armenian  alphabet.  The  council  took  the  matter  up  most 
warmly,  and  entreated  the  King  to  send  messengers  to  Meso- 
potamia at  once  to  visit  Abel  and  learn  all  he  could  tell  them 
about  the  matter.  This  he  did,  and  messengers  obtained  from 
Bishop  Daniel  a  copy  of  the  alphabet  in  question  (which  is  said 
to  have  resembled  the  Greek)  and  information  regarding  the 
pronunciation  of  the  letters  composing  it.  Meanwhile  the 
whole  council,  according  to  Lazarus  phorpitsi,  addressed  a 
very  earnest  request  to  the  Catholicos  that  he  would  complete 
the  work  begun  by  his  great  ancestor,  Gregory,  by  taking  im- 
mediate steps  to  have  the  Bible  translated  into  Armenian  from 
the  Greek.  Sahak  most  gladly  undertook  to  have  this  great 
work  carried  out,  for  he  saw  that  it  was  the  desire  of  the 
whole  nation,  who  deeply  felt  their  need,  and  the  almost  utter 
uselessness  of  having  the  Scriptures  read  and  divine  service 
held  in  a  language  they  could  not  understand. 

A  fitter  person  that  Sahak  to  undertake  such  a  work 
could  hardly  have  been  found.  Setting  aside  his  piety  and 
zeal,  Sahak's  learning  rendered  him  capable  of  the  task.  Born 
at  Constantinople  and  educated  there  and  at  Csesarea,  Sahak 
knew  Greek  as  perfectly  as  he  knew  his  mother  tongue.  He 
had  become  Catholicos  at  the  age  of  thirty-five,  and  the 
greater  part  of  his  life  up  to  that  time  had  been  spent  abroad. 
He  had  a  very  fair  knowledge  of  Syriac,  and  was  also  well 
acquainted  with  Persian,  at  that  time  apparently  the  court 
language  in  Armenia.  His  energy  was  unbounded,  and  he 
was  untiring  in  every  good  work. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  121 

He  commanded  the  confidence  of  the  people  and  was 
honored  at  court.  Besides  all  this,  he  was  an  eloquent 
preacher  and  an  able  teacher,  and  had  the  rare  talent  of  instill- 
ing into  the  minds  of  his  disciples  the  zeal  and  earnestness  that 
animated  his  own  soul. 

When  Mesrop  received  the  alphabet  sent  by  Bishop 
Daniel,  Sahak  the  Catholicos  and  he  having  carefully  studied 
it,  tried  for  two  whole  years  to  teach  it  in  the  schools,  and  use 
it  for  the  development  of  an  Armenian  literature.  But  they 
found  that  it  contained  fourteen  letters  less  than  were  actually 
needed  to  express  the  sounds  of  their  native  tongue.  Mesrop 
had  devoted  a  considerable  amount  of  study  to  the  conclusion 
that  it  was  utter  waste  of  time  to  continue  to  use  this  defective 
alphabet.  Before,  however,  abandoning  the  attempt,  he,  with 
his  assistants,  John  of  Ekeghikh  and  Joseph  Paghnatsi  visited 
Bishop  Daniel  in  Mesopotamia,  and  tried  with  his  assistance 
to  modify  this  alphabet  so  as  to  adapt  it  to  the  Armenian  lan- 
guage.   But  the  attempt  failed. 

While  praying  over  the  matter  the  right  solution  suddenly 
occurred  to  Mesrop.  Koriun  informs  us  that,  "Not  in  sleep  as 
a  dream,  nor  in  a  vision  while  awake,  but  in  the  workshop  of 
his  heart  he  saw,  manifested  to  the  eyes  of  his  spirit,  the  fingers 
of  a  right  hand  writing  on  a  rock.  The  stone  had  a  border  line 
as  of  snow.  It  not  only  was  manifested  to  him,  but  the  exact 
figures  of  all  the  characters  were  collected  together  in  his  mind 
as  a  miracle. 

Rising  from  prayer,  he  founded  our  written  characters. 
At  Samosata  he  and  his  assistants  procured  the  aid  of  a  Greek 
scribe  named  Ruffines,  a  disciple  of  Epiphanes,  a  hermit  in 
Samos,  who  seems  to  have  assisted  him  in  improving  and  ar- 
ranging the  characters  as  far  as  possible  in  accordance  with 
the  order  of  the  letters  of  the  Greek  alphabet.  In  fact,  there 
can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  the  Armenian  characters  are 
formed  principally  from  the  Greek,  though  some  were  ap- 
parently borrowed  from  the  Avestic  alphabet,  and  new  letters 
— modifications  of  somewhat  similar  Greek  ones — were  intro- 


122  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

duced  when  needed  to  express  sounds  peenliar  to  Armenian. 
The  alphabet  thus  formed  was  made  symmetrical  and  harmo- 
nious, and  it  lias  ever  since  been  used  in  Armenia.  The  date 
which  Armenian  historians  assign  for  this  invention  is  A.  D., 
406. 

Immediately  after  this  discovery,  Mcsrop  with  his  two 
pupils,  John  and  Joseph,  set  to  work  to  translate  the  Bible  from 
the  Greek.  He  began  with  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  and  then 
went  on  to  translate  the  New  Testament.  How  much  of  this 
work  he  accomplished  at  Samosata  we  do  not  know.  .  .  . 
Koriun  seems  to  imply  that  Mesrop  translated  the  whole 
Bible,  while  Moses  ol  Khorene  attributes  the  work  to  him  and 
the  Catholicos  Sahak  and  their  disciples  working  together. 
It  seems  plain  that  the  whole  task  cannot  have  been  accom- 
plished by  Mesrop  at  that  time  for  he  returned  to  Armenia 
very  soon,  and  we  find  the  new  invention  warmly  welcomed 
by  King  Yramshabad  in  408,  when  he  encouraged  Mesrop 
and  Sahak  in  their  efforts  to  establish  schools  throughout  the 
country,  in  which  the  new  letters  were  taught. 

The  schools  established  at  Yramshapouh  was  the  most 
celebrated  of  these,  and  became  in  fact  a  sort  of  Alma  Mater 
to  all  the  rest. 

The  pupils  there  trained  were  dispersed  throughout  the 
country  to  found  schools  and  train  the  most  promising  youths 
in  the  other  cantons  of  Armenia. 

They  were  also  associated  with  Sahak  and  Mesrop  in  their 
translated  work.  Then  began  the  Golden  Age  of  Armenian 
literature. 

The  fifth  century  is  known  as  the  Age  of  Translators. 
These  were  divided  into  two  groups.  Among  the  "elder  trans- 
lators" are  included  Eznik  Koghbatsi,  who  wrote  a  refutation 
of  heresies.  Koriun,  the  biographer  of  Mesrop,  Joseph  Pagh- 
natsi  and  John  Ekeghetsatsi,  whom  we  have  already  men- 
tioned, Joseph  Vayots  Tzorits  and  Leantius  Vanandetsi.  The 
' 'vounger  translators"  were  in  most  instances  the  pupils  of  the 
elder,  and  included  Moses  of  Khorene,  (the  Herodotus  of  Ar- 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  123 

menian  history),  Eghishe  (Elisha),  who  wrote  a  history  of  the 
great  struggle  which  took  place  in  the  fifth  century  between 
the  Persians  and  the  Armenians  under  the  Vardans,  John 
Mando  Kanni,  Ghazar  (Lazar)  Phorpetsi  the  historian  and 
others. 

When  Mesrop  returned  to  Armenia  he  found  that  the 
Catholicos  had  already  begun  to  translate  the  Bible  from  the 
Syriac.  It  had  been  his  intention  to  make  the  Greek  Septua- 
gint  the  basis  of  his  translation  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  to 
translate  the  New  Testament  from  the  original  Greek.  But 
a  most  careful  search  throughout  the  whole  of  Persian  Ar- 
menia failed  to  discover  a  single  manuscript  of  Holy  Scriptures 
in  Greek.  Meranzhan's  search  for  Greek  books  had  been  so 
thorough  that  he  had  burned  every  single  copy  in  the  country. 

Nor  were  the  Catholicos'  messengers  permitted  to  extend 
their  search  to  that  part  of  the  country  which,  after  Khasrove 
III.'s  death,  had  again,  in  the  reign  of  Theodosius  II.,  been  in- 
corporated with  the  Byzantine  empire.  Even  Mesrop's  at- 
tempt to  get  permission  to  teach  his  alphabet  to  the  people 
of  that  district  were  for  the  same  considerable  time  success- 
fully opposed  by  the  Byzantine  governors.  Meranzhan's 
efforts  had  not  been  directed  to  the  destruction  of  Syriac  cop- 
ies of  the  Bible;  in  fact,  Syriac  learning  was  encouraged  by 
the  Persians,  while  they  sternly  endeavored  to  repress  the 
studv  of  Greek.  Hence  Saliak  had  no  difficulty  in  procuring 
copies  of  the  Peshitto  version  of  the  Bible,  and  accordingly 
began  to  translate  that  into  Armenian. 

He  first  translated  those  portions  of  the  Scriptures  which 
were  appointed  to  be  read  in  the  churches,  and  his  version  of 
these  was  published  in  A.  D.,  411. 

The  Catholicos  now  sent  some  of  his  own  and  Mesrop's 
most  promising  pupils  to  Greece  and  Syria  to  search  for  and 
translate  all  the  most  important  books  they  could  find,  espe- 
cially the  works  of  the  leading  fathers  of  the  church.  Eznik 
and  Toseph  were  sent  to  Edessa  for  this  purpose. 

When  they  had  made  many  versions  there  from  the  Syriac, 


U4  n.i.rSTkATKi)    ARMENIA 

they  went  to  Constantinople  in  their  eagerness  to  prosecute 
the  study  of  Greek.  There  obtaining  possession  of  the  Greek 
originals  of  some  of  the  works  they  already  had  in  Syriac,  they 
carefully  revised  the  versions  of  these  books  which  they  had 
made  at  Edessa.  They  were  joined  at  Constantinople  by 
Koriun  and  Leontes,  who  had  been  impelled  to  go  thither  by 
their  zeal  for  learning. 

Shortly  afterwards  two  others  of  their  fellow  students  ar- 
rived, John  and  Arbzan,  sent  by  Sahak  to  obtain  authorized 
copies  of  the  Greek  Bible  for  him,  and  these  latter  were  also 
directed  to  be  present  at  the  council  of  Ephesus  in  A.  D.  431. 
There  they  gave  an  account  of  the  progress  of  the  Gospel  in 
Armenia  and  of  Mesrop's  great  invention. 

On  their  return  they  took  back  with  them  copies  of  the 
Greek  Bible  from  the  imperial  library  at  Constantinople,  which 
must  have  been  in  accordance  with  those  made  by  Eusebius  at 
Constantine  the  Great's  command.  They  found  Mesrop  and 
Sahak  at  Ashtishat,  still  busily  engaged  in  translational  work. 

On  the  receipt  of  the  Greek  manuscripts,  which  his  mes- 
sengers had  brought,  Sahak  was  greatly  puzzled  by  the  nu- 
merous slight  variations  of  reading  to  be  found  in  the  dif- 
ferent Syriac  and  Greek  copies  of  the  Bible  now  in  his  hands. 
It  was  partly  for  this  reason,  as  well  as  with  the  object  of  secur- 
ing the  assistance  of  scholars  thoroughly  versed  in  Greek 
learning,  that  he  sent  Moses  of  Khorene  and  others  to  study 
philosophy,  history  and  rhetoric  at  Alexandria.  Others  were 
sent  to  Constantinople  and  other  great  educational  centres. 

On  their  return,  after  a  period  of  about  seven  years,  these 
men  devoted  their  energies  to  the  enlightenment  of  their  na- 
tive land. 

They  do  not  seem,  however,  to  have  been  of  much  as- 
sistance in  the  translation  of  the  Bible,  which  was  finished  and 
published  in  A.  D.  456. 

This  was  the  second  Armenian  version,  made  this  time  by 
Sahak  and  Mesrop,  from  the  Greek.  The  receipt  of  the  Greek 
manuscripts  brought  from  Byzantine  had  made  Sahak  resolve 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  1^5 

to  revise  his  version  in  accordance  with  the  Greek.  We  might 
therefore  suppose  that  he  would  have  followed  the  Greek  in  all 
places  where  it  differs  from  Peshitto  Syriac  text.  But,  how- 
ever, the  fact  is  to  be  accounted  for — this  is  by  no  means  the 
case.  Certain  passages  show  that  the  Syriac  text  was  preferred 
to  the  Greek. 

It  will  be  sufficient  to  mention  one  illustration  of  this.  In 
the  last  paragraph  of  St.  Mathew's  Gospel — which  is  read  in 
the  Baptismal  service  of  the  Armenian  church — the  passage 
"As  (My)  Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you;"  is  intro- 
duced at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  verse,  as  in  the  Peshitto.  It 
is  repeated,  however,  in  the  Armenian  version  (as  in  the  Greek 
text  and  the  Peshitto)  in  its  proper  place,  John  xx.,  21,  Mak- 
ing allowances  for  such  facts  as  these,  which  show  a  want  cf 
critical  acumen — hardly  to  be  wondered  at  in  that  age — on 
the  part  of  the  Armenian  translators,  the  version  made  by 
Sahak,  Mesrop  and  their  coadjutors  is  a  noble  one,  well  deserv- 
ing of  the  title  of  "queen  of  versions"  which  has  been  bestowed 
upon  it.  Its  great  defect  is  that  the  Old  Testament  was  trans- 
lated from  the  Septuagint  and  not  direct  from  the  original 
Hebrew.  From  the  language  of  Moses  of  Khorene  and  other 
contemporary  writers,  it  is  clear  that  the  Armenian  Bible  did 
not  originally  contain  the  Apocrypha.  The  expression  they 
use  is  that  the  translators  rendered  into  Armenian  the  twenty- 
two  evident  (acknowledged)  books  of  the  Old  Testament.  This, 
of  course,  means  the  books  of  the  Hebrew  canon,  which  were 
in  ancient  times  reckoned  as  numbering  twenty-two,  the  num- 
ber of  the  letters  in  the  Hebrew  alphabet.  The  Old  Testament 
Apocrypha  is,  however,  now  read  in  the  Armenian  church. 

As  far  as  we  can  learn  from  the  somewhat  varying  ac- 
counts of  contemporary  Armenian  historians,  the  whole  of 
the  Old  Testament,  except  the  proverbs  of  Soloman,  was  trans- 
lated by  Sahak,  while  Mesrop  translated  the  proverbs  and  the 
New  Testament.  But  the  revision  was  shared  in  by  both 
these  great  men  as  well  as  some  of  the  most  able  of  their 
disciples.      It  is  needless   to  say   what  a   boon   to   Armenia 


126  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

such  a  work  was.  The  Armenian  people  were  now  able  to  un- 
derstand the  word  of  God  read  in  their  churches  and  circulated 
among-  them  in  every  part  of  the  country  as  quickly  as  scribes 
could  multiply  copies  in  sufficient  numbers. 

The  Bible  was  everywhere  eagerly  studied,  and  one  im- 
mediate result  was  a  great  deepening  of  the  religious  life  of 
the  people.  The  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  message  and  of 
the  commandments  of  God  spread  everywhere,  and  Mesrop 
and  Sahak  were  most  diligent  in  the  effort  to  enlighten  the 
people  in  every  canton  of  the  country.  We  may  form  some 
idea  of  what  then  took  place  in  Armenia  by  remembering  the 
accounts  which  historians  give  us  of  the  reception  Luther's 
German  Bible  met  with  when  it  issued  from  the  press.  The 
Armenian  Bible  soon  became  the  one  great  national  book,  and 
early  Armenian  historians  have  in  most  cases  their  whole 
style  colored  by  their  intimate  acuaintance  with  Holy  Scrip- 
ture. 

It  has  often  been  remarked,  and  with  perfect  truth,  that 
it  was  to  the  invention  of  the  Armenian  alphabet,  and  the  pub- 
lication of  Mesrop  and  Sahak's  version  of  the  Bible  in  that  lan- 
guage that  the  nation  owed  not  only  its  retention  of  Christi- 
anity during  the  terrible  persecution  that  so  quickly  followed 
the  fall  of  the  Arsacidae  dynasty,  but  even  its  very  existence. 
Had  not  the  people  been  united  by  an  intelligent  knowledge, 
and  a  hearty  acceptance  of  one  faith  and  by  the  possession  of 
a  national  literature,  they  could  never  have  weathered  the 
storms  that  in  the  fifth  and  following  centuries  beat  with  such 
furv  upon  Armenia.  The  breathing  space  afforded  by  Vram- 
shabad's  wise  and  peaceful  reign,  falling  between  these 
periods  of  trouble  and  discord,  was  giving  by  an  all-wise  and 
merciful  providence  to  prevent  the  vessel  of  both  church  and 
nationality  from  dire  and  terrible  shipwreck. 

Besides  the  direct  spiritual  results  of  the  translation  of  the 
Bible  into  the  language  of  the  people,  (which  were  so  great 
that  Lazarus  Pharpetsi  says  that  in  describing-  them  he  is  war- 
ranted in  using  Isaiah's  words,  and  stating  that  the  whole  land 


MESROP,  AS  HIGH  PRIEST. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  12? 

of  Armenia  was  thereby  filled  with  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord 
as  the  waters  cover  the  sea),  it  had  also  others  less  direct,  but 
very  important.  One  of  these  was  that  it  reduced  the  lan- 
guage to  a  literary  standard,  and  gave  it  order,  fixity  and  per- 
manence. From  very  early  times  many  different  dialects  have 
prevailed  in  Armenia,  but  during  the  last  few  centuries  of 
our  narrative  the  dialect  of  the  province  of  Ararat  had  come 
to  the  fore  as  the  language  of  the  court  and  of  the  central  and 
leading  district  in  the  kingdom. 

This  was  the  dialect  which  was  naturally  adopted  by  the 
translators,  and  it  became  the  literary  language  of  the  country. 
Even  to  the  present  time  though  no  longer  spoken,  it  is  used 
in  literature  to  a  great  extent  and  until  very  recently  was  the 
only  written  form  of  Armenian.  The  literary  dialects  of  mod- 
ern language,  those  of  Ararat  and  Constantinople,  are  now  ex- 
tensively used,  though  the  old  literary  dialect  is  still  dignified 
with  the  title  of  Grapar,  or  written. 

The  literary  impulse  given  to  the  leading  minds  of  the 
nation  by  Mesraph's  invention  of  the  alphabet  led  to  a  great 
amount  of  other  translational  work,  besides  the  composition  of 
such  books  as  Moses  of  Khorene's  History  of  Armenia, 
Eznik's  Refutation  of  Heresies,  Elisha's  History  of  the  War  of 
the  Vartans,  and  other  similar  works  of  great  value  and  in- 
terest. Not  only  were  the  old  chronicles  of  the  kingdom 
transcribed  into  the  new  alphabet,  and  thus  preserved  for  some 
considerable  time,  but  the  works  of  all  the  Greek  and  Syrian 
Fathers  that  could  possibly  be  obtained  were  translated  into 
Armenian.  A  little  later  the  works  of  Plato  and  Aristotle,  of 
Homer  and  other  classical  writers  were  added  to  the  list.  We 
hardly  know  as  yet  at  all  fully  what  valuable  writings  have 
thus  been  preserved  to  us  in  Armenian  libraries,  but  Tatian's 
Diatessaran  and  Eusebius  chronicle  are  examples  of  the  treas- 
ure still  to  be  discovered  by  diligent  search  in  this  field  of 
learning. 

Armenian  historians  relate  that  to  Mesrap  is  due  the  inven- 
tion of  the  ecclesiastical  alphabet  in  use  in  Georgia.  The  date 
they  fix  for  this  is  A.  D.  410, 


128  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 


BAROUYR  OR  BRAYERIOS. 


We  must  not  judge  the  ability  and  reputation  of  men 
in  their  own  ages  solely  by  the  familiarity  of  their  names  to 
us:  those  that  have  come  down  to  us  are  a  mere  handful,  and 
not  by  any  means  always  the  greatest  of  their  time. 

Much  depends  on  chance — the  preservation  of  certain 
works,  and  the  loss  of  others,  or  certain  men  happening  to  do 
something  dramatic.  Great  orators  are  especially  likely  to 
be  forgotten;  they  leave  no  written  works  of  their  own,  and 
not  being  in  political  life  the  common  histories  do  not  mention 
them.  The  name  of  Barouyr  is  wholly  unknown  to  this  age; 
but  we  have  the  testimony  of  a  contemporary  writer,  Eunapius 
of  Sardis — not  a  countryman  of  his,  and  therefore  free  from  all 
suspicion  of  patriotic  brag,  and  most  unlikely  to  make  out  an 
Armenian  greater  than  he  was — that  he  was  the  most  wonder- 
ful orator  of  his  time,  famous  all  over  the  Roman  world,  and 
greatly  admired  even  by  the  emperors.  He  was  one  of  those 
men  to  whom  all  languages  seem  alike  to  come  by  nature,  and 
his  oratory  was  as  easy  and  as  perfect  in  one  as  in  the  other; 
in  Latin  or  Greek  as  in  his  national  Armenian.  The  only 
comparison  I  can  give  in  modern  times  is  Louis  Kossuth. 

That  Barouyr  has  not  the  fame  of  Cicero  or  Demosthenes, 
Kossuth  or  Gladstone,  is  probably  because  under  the  circum- 
stances of  the  time  he  could  not  engage  in  political  life.  Mili- 
tary service  or  high  birth  were  about  the  only  avenues. 

I  will  quote  in  substance  what  Eunapius  says  of  this  bril- 
liant orator,  whom  he  probably  knew  all  about,  as  our  boys 
know  about  Gladstone. 

Barouyr,  he  was  born  in  347,  and  he  was  certainly  alive 
in  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Julian,  who  came  to  the  throne  in 
361. 

Barouyr  lived  to  be  ninety,  and  was  beautiful  even  in  old 
age,  having  vigor  of  youth  in  his  looks.  He  was  eight  feet 
high.  When  a  boy  he  left  Armenia  and  went  to  Antioch, 
the  first  of  the  Christians,  and  entered  the  school  of  oratory  un- 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  120, 

der  the  celebrated  Albianos,  where  he  shortly  became  the  fore- 
most pupil.  Thence  he  went  to  the  Athens  and  studied  under 
Julian,  the  greatest  of  the  teachers  of  oratory  there, — support- 
ing himself  by  working  meantimes,  as  he  was  very  poor;  in  no 
long  time  he  was  recognized  as  the  leading  orator  of  Athens, 
and  taught  the  art  to  the  Athenians.  The  other  teachers  were 
so  angry  that  they  bribed  the  governor  to  banish  him;  but  on 
the  governor's  removal  some  time  after,  he  was  permitted  to 
return.  The  new  governor  instituted  an  oratorical  competi- 
tion :  Whoever  could  deliver  the  best  extempore  oration  on  a 
subject  to  be  given  out  on  the  spot,  should  receive  great 
honors.  Barouyr  took  part  on  condition  that  the  auditors 
should  take  careful  notes  and  should  not  cheer;  but  they  were 
so  fascinated  that  they  broke  both  conditions,  listening  in 
rapture  and  applauding  repeatedly.  The  governor  offered 
him  his  chair  and  honored  him  as  the  greatest  orator  in 
Athens.  Later  the  Emperor  Constans  was  so  struck  with 
his  wisdom  and  oratorical  power  that  he  called  him  first  to 
Gaul  and  then  to  Rome,  where  he  delivered  his  greatest  ora- 
tions and  the  Romans  erected  a  bronze  monument  in  his 
honor,  inscribed  "Regina  Rerum  Momoe  Regi  Eliquentioc." 
(Rome  Queen  of  Affairs  to  the  King  of  Eloquence).  From 
Rome  he  returned  to  Athens,  and  taught  there  many  years 
with  great  repute,  up  to  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Julian,  who 
honored  him  and  spoke  as  follows  of  him:  "Barouyr  was  a 
flowing  river  of  oratory,  and  in  power  and  persuasiveness  of 
speech  was  like  Pericles."  And  I  now  add  that  with  all  this 
he  was  a  thorough  Christian  man — not  a  priest,  but  a  great 
Christian  layman  and  teacher  but  not  among  his  nation.  He 
was  mostlv  in  foreign  countries. 


VARTAN,  DEFENDER  OF  THE  FAITH. 

The  Sassanian  dynasty  in  Persia  was  a  source,  more  or 
less,  of  perpetual  misery  and  blood-shed  in  Armenia.     As  it 


I30  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

has  been  said  before,  the  Persians  had  two  reasons  for  their 
cruel  attitude  towards  Armenia.  These  causes  were  the  ex- 
istence of  the  Aroacide  reign  and  Christianity  in  Armenia, 
while  Zoroastrianism  was  revived  in  Persia  under  the  Sassan- 
ian  kings. 

Christianity  was  a  permanent  cause  or  occasion  for  which 
Armenia  has  suffered  and  is  still  suffering  indescribable  mis- 
eries and  innumerable  cruelties.  The  Persians  would  imagine 
that  as  long  as  the  Armenians  are  Christians  they  are  in  al- 
liance with  the  Greeks,  while,  unfortunately  and  often,  the 
Greeks  were  no  longer  in  sympathy  with  them  than  the  Per- 
sians. 

Armenia  about  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  had  entirely 
lost  her  independence  and  was  divided  between  the  Greeks  and 
the  Persians,  the  eastern  and  the  large  part  of  the  country  be- 
ing under  the  latter  power. 

Yesgerd  II.,  the  King  of  Persia,  (A.  D.  450),  decreed  thus: 
"All  people  and  tongues  throughout  my  domains  must  aban- 
don their  heresies,  worship  the  sun,  bring  to  him  their  offer- 
ings, and  call  him  God;  they  shall  feed  the  holy  fire,  and  fulfill 
all  the  ordinances  of  Magi."  Accordingly,  Mihrnersh,  the 
grand  vizier  of  the  Persian  court,  wrote  a  long  letter  to  the 
Armenians,  polemic  in  character,  persuasive  in  style,  and 
menacing  in  tone,  the  synod  of  the  Armenian  bishops  he  con- 
vened, who  unanimously  agreed  to  defend  their  religion  at 
any  cost,  and  at  the  same  time  it  was  decided  upon  answering 
the  letter  of  the  grand  vizier  in  which  they  both  refuted  the 
charges  made  against  Christianity,  undauntedly  defended  their 
faith,  showing  the  absurdity  of  Zoroastrianism,  and  concluded 
the  epistle  with  these  words:  "From  this  belief  no  one  can 
move  us  neither  angels  nor  men,  neither  fire  nor  sword,  nor 
water,  nor  any  other  horrid  tortures,  however  they  be  called. 
All  our  goods  and  our  possessions  are  before  thee,  dispose 
of  them  as  thou  wilt,  and  if  thou  only  leavest  us  to  our  belief, 
we  will  here  below  choose  no  other  lord  in  thy  place,  and  in 
heaven  have  no  other  God  but  Jesus  Christ,  for  there  is  no 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  .  131 

other  God  save  only  Him.  But  shouldst  thou  require  some- 
thing beyond  this  great  testimony,  behold  our  resolution :  our 
bodies  are  in  thy  hands — do  with  them  according  to  thy  plea- 
sure; tortures  are  thine,  and  patience  ours;  thou  hast  the 
sword,  we  the  neck;  we  are  nothing  better  than  our  fore- 
fathers, who,  for  the  sake  of  their  faith,  resigned  their  goods, 
possessions  and  life.  Do  thou,  therefore,  inquire  of  us  nothing 
further  concerning  these  things,  for  our  belief  originates  not 
with  men,  we  are  not  taught  like  children,  but  we  are  indissolu- 
ble, bound  to  God  from  whom  nothing  can  detach  us,  neither 
now  or  hereafter,  nor  forever,  nor  for  ever  and  ever." 

As  soon  as  this  letter  arrived  at  the  Royal  Court  of  Persia, 
King  Yasgerd  was  enraged  and  summed  the  Armenia 
princes  to  immediately  repair  to  His  Majesty's  presence. 
There  in  the  presence  of  the  King  they  manifested  a  great 
resolution  in  their  faith,  for  which  they  were  ignominiously 
treated  and  confined  in  prison.  Having  been  threatened  while 
in  their  confinement,  they  devised  a  scheme;  they  thought  it 
was  better,  apparently,  to  comply  with  the  demands  of  the  King, 
but  inwardly  to  remain  true  to  their  convictions  and  religion. 
God,  who  is  able  to  bring  good  out  of  evil,  indeed  did  so  in 
this  case.  When  it  was  made  known  to  the  King  that  the  Ar- 
menian princes  were  willing  to  accept  his  terms,  at  once  they 
were  liberated  and  returned  with  distinctions  to  their  homes, 
and  a  large  army  with  over  seven  hundred  magi  were  exultant- 
ly marching  on  to  Armenia  to  raze  to  the  ground  every  Christ- 
ian church  and  school  and  disciple  the  people  into  the  myster- 
ious absurdities  of  Zoroastrianism. 

No  sooner  had  the  news  of  the  apostacy  of  the  princes 
reached  Armenia  than  the  bishops,  priests  and  the  laity  con- 
demned the  weakness  and  the  folly  of  the  princes. 

When  the  princes  returned  to  Armenia  they  found  no  one 
ready  to  listen  to  any  explanation,  but  everywhere  the  people 
were  ready  to  defend  their  religion  at  the  cost  of  their  lives.  A 
large  multitude  made  up  of  clergy  and  laity,  among  whom 
were  many  women,  gathered  for  immediate  action,  for  the 


132  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

enemy  was  marching  on.  Some  of  the  princes  could  not  endure 
the  contempt  of  the  people,  nor  the  unrelenting-  remorse  of 
consciences,  so  they  were  ready  to  expiate  their  folly  at 
any  cost. 

Yartan  Mamigonian  is  the  most  esteemed  and  beloved 
name  in  Armenian  history.  This  noble  man  was  a  grand- 
son of  Sahak  Catholicos.  When  Vartan  Mamigonian  was  a 
little  boy.  lie  was  so  full  of  grace  that  the  Pontiff  Sahak 
adopted  him  as  his  son,  and  through  this  companionship  of  the 
aged  ecclesiastic  and  the  religions  boy,  the  latter  developed 
into  a  great  spiritual  light.  In  421  he  went  to  Constantinople 
with  noble  St.  Mesrop.  and  was  much  loved  and  esteemed  by 
the  Emperor  (Theodosius  II.),  and  the  court,  then  to  Persia, 
where  the  King  honored  him  and  gave  him  the  title  of  prince. 

Yartan  Mamigonian  was  a  faithful  servant  of  God  and  His 
Saviour.  It  was  said  of  him  that  he  was  an  honest,  modest, 
wise,  brave,  true,  pure,  childlike  and  Christlike  Christian  com- 
mander, a  great  soldier  of  the  Cross.  He  was  a  lamb  in  nature, 
but  when  he  came  to  defend  his  religion  he  was  a  lion. 

Prince  Yartan,  the  Mamigonian,  was  unanimously  ap- 
pointed the  commander-in-chief  of  the  Armenians,  against 
the  Persians,  and  the  multitude  was  formed  into  three  divisions, 
intrusted  to  three  princes:  Vartan,  Nershebuh  and  Vasag. 
The  latter,  however,  proved  treacherous  and  perfidious,  and 
with  his  almost  entire  division  sided  with  the  Persians,  and  be- 
gan to  devastate  the  provinces,  where  he  wras  stationed  to  en- 
counter the  foe.  His  treachery  decided  the  fate  of  the  Ar- 
menians. But  brave  Vartan  and  the  rest  were  not  dismayed, 
though  they  knew  that  they  alone  could  not  conquer  an  im- 
mense army  of  the  enemy  with  a  small  force  of  their  own.  Yet 
they  were  not  fighting  for  victory,  but  for  their  convictions  and 
the  religion  of  Christ. 

Finally  the  forces  were  arrayed  for  battle  on  the  banks 
of  the  Dughmood  river,  on  the  plains  of  Avaraye,  near  the 
present  city  of  Van. 

Prince  Varton  had  66,000  men,  the  Persians  several  times 


Mrnwe  E.rx&(-o-  l$os>h>n 


VARTAN    MAMIGONIAN. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  133 

as  many.  Before  beginning  war  Vartan  Mamigonian 
knelt  down  and  prayed  to  God  for  help,  and  to  Christ  for 
his  own  salvation,  then  he  made  an  address  to  his  soldiers,  in 
substance  as  follows: 

"Soldiers,  as  Christians,  we  are  averse  to  fighting,  but  to 
defend  the  Christian  religion  and  our  own  freedom  we  have  to 
fight.  Surely  our  lives  are  not  as  valuable  as  Christ's,  and  if 
He  was  willing  to  die  on  the  cross  for  us  we  ought  to  be  will- 
ing to  die  in  battle  for  Him.  I  have  been,"  said  he,  "in  many 
battles,  and  you  also  with  me ;  we  have  sometimes  bravely  van- 
quished the  foe;  sometimes  they  vanquished  us,  but  on  all 
these  occasions  we  thought  only  of  worldly  distinction,  and 
\ve  fought  merely  at  the  command  of  a  mortal  king.  Behold, 
we  have  all  many  wounds  and  scars  upon  our  persons,  and 
great  must  have  been  our  bravery  to  have  won  these  great 
marks  of  honor.  But  useless  and  empty  I  deem  these  exploits 
whereby  we  have  received  these  honorable  marks,  for  they  pass 
away.  If,  however,  you  have  done  such  valiant  deeds  in  obedi- 
ence to  a  mortal  ruler,  how  much  more  will  you  do  then  for 
our  immortal  King,  who  is  Lord  of  life  and  death,  and  who 
judges  every  one  according  to  his  works. 

"Now,  therefore,  I  entreat  you,  my  brave  companions,  and 
more  so  as  you — albeit  in  bravery,  worth,  and  inherited  hon- 
ors greater  than  I — have  of  your  own  free  will  and  out  of  your 
love  elected  me  your  leader  and  chief,  I  entreat  that  my  words 
may  be  favorably  received  by  the  high  and  the  low.  Fear  not 
the  numbers  of  the  heathens;  withdraw  not  your  necks  from 
the  terrific  sword  of  a  mortal  man  in  order  that  the  Lord  may 
give  the  victory  into  our  hands,  that  we  may  annihilate  their 
power  and  lift  on  high  the  standard  of  truth." 

On  the  morning  of  the  day  of  the  battle  the  little  army  of 
the  Holy  League  received  the  Holy  Eucharist,  and  marched  on 
with  these  words:  "May  our  death  be  like  to  the  death  of  the 
just,  and  may  the  shedding  of  our  blood  resemble  the  blood- 
shedding  of  the  prophet.  May  God  look  in  mercy  on  our  vol- 
untary self-offering,  and  may  He  not  deliver  the  church  into 


I  34  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

the  hands  of  the  heathens."  Then,  with  his  troops,  he  crossed 
the  river  fell  on  the  enemy's  centre,  and  scattered  the  huge 
army  in  rout,  killing  3,544  men,  besides  nine  great  princes,  and 
losing  1,036  of  his  men;  but  alas!  one  of  these  was  himself, 
dying  from  a  mortal  wound  not  long  after.  Nevertheless  he 
had  won  the  victory  he  was  striving  for. 

Yazygerd,  the  King  of  Persia,  saw  it  was  impossible  to 
conquer  the  Armenians  in  a  war  for  religion,  and  granted  en- 
tire liberty  to  the  Christians  to  believe  and  preach  as  they 
pleased 


PRINCE    VAIIAX     MAMIGONIAN. 

Christianity  and  Zoroastrianism  had  many  a  battle  in  the 
land  of  Ararat,  until  the  latter,  in  total  despair,  was  willing  to 
submit  to  the  former,  on  some  amicable  terms  to  be  suggested 
by  a  brave  son  of  Armenia,  a  worthy  member  of  the  house  of 
Mamigoians.  This  valiant  champion  of  truth  was  Vahan 
Alamigonian,  whose  uncle,  Prince  Vartan,  led  the  Holy  League 
in  battle,  and  with  the  heroism  and  courage  of  the  martyrs 
defended  their  religion  and  rights,  and  had  sealed  their  testi- 
mony to  the  truth  of  Christianity  by  their  blood  in  the  previous 
battle. 

The  Persians,  ofter  their  conquest  of  Armenia,  destroyed 
many  of  the  churches  and  schools.  Many  of  the  bishops  and 
priests  were  captured.  Some  were  martyred  on  the  spot,  others 
were  carried  to  Persia  and  there  executed.  The  patriarch, 
Joseph,  in  whose  character  and  life  shine  forth  piety,  courage 
and  devotion,  was  one  of  those  carried  to  Persia.  The  Christ- 
ians were  persecuted  with  indescribable  tortures  and  cruelties 
and  Zoroastrianism  inculcated  among  the  Armenians,  who  in 
return  most  cordially  hated  both  the  religion  of  Zoroaster  and 
its  defenders,  and  were  alert  for  an  opportunity  to  drive  out  the 
usurpers  as  unwelcomed  teachers  of  an  unphilosophized  reli- 


PRINCE  VAHAN  MAMIGONIAN. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  135 

gion  sprung  out  of  Zoroaster's  imagination.  The  northern 
provinces  of  Armenia  rebelled  against  the  Persians.  The  latter, 
therefore,  attempted  to  subdue  them.  The  Armenians  availed 
themselves  of  this  ample  occasion,  armed  themselves  and  urged 
Vahan  Mamigonian  to  take  the  lead  of  the  army  to  clear  out 
of  the  country  the  troops  of  the  enemy  left  there.  The  Persian 
forces  had  received  such  terrible  disastrous  defeats  in  various 
contests  from  the  Armenians,  under  the  command  of  Prince 
Vahan  Mamigonian,  that  when  a  new  governor,  Nikhor,  was 
appointed  by  Balos,  the  King  of  Persia  (A.  D.  485),  he  instead 
of  attacking  Vahan,  who  held  almost  the  whole  of  the  country, 
wished  to  come  to  an  arrangement  agreeable  to  the  Armen- 
ians.    Prince  Vahan  therefore  proposed  the  following  terms: 

1.  The  existing  fire-altars  should  be  destroyed  and  no 
others  should  be  erected  in  Armenia. 

2.  The  Armenians  should  be  allowed  the  free  and  full 
exercise  of  Christian  religion,  and  no  Armenians  should  be  in 
future  tempted  or  bribed  to  declare  themselves  disciples  of 
Zoroaster. 

3.  If  converts  were,  nevertheless,  made  from  Christianity 
to  Zoroastrianism,  places  (of  honor)  should  not  be  given  to 
them. 

4.  The  Persian  King  should  in  person,  and  not  by  de- 
puty, administer  the  affairs  of  Armenia. 

These  terms  proposed  by  Prince  Vahan,  were  favorably 
accepted  by  Nikhor,  and  an  edict  of  toleration  was  issued  and 
proclaimed  that  everyone  should  be  at  liberty  to  adhere  to  his 
own  religion,  and  that  no  one  should  be  driven  to  apostatize. 
Afterwards  Vahan  himself  was  appointed  governor  of  Ar- 
menia by  the  King,  and  thus  the  church  enjoyed  a  period  of 
tranquility  from  the  persecutions. 

ARMENIAN  LITERATURE. 

The  Armenian  schools  and  universities  and  their  outpour 
of  great  scholars  and  writers  have  already  been  spoken  of, 


I36  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

but  of  course  Armenian  youths,  eager  for  the  best  of  the 
world's  learning,  did  not  confine  themselves  to  their  own 
country;  they  studied  in  Constantinople,  Athens,  Antioch, 
Alexandria,  and  wherever  great  teachers  were  located, — all 
zealous  Christians,  and  the  books  they  have  left  behind  were 
Christian  literature,  not  works  of  mere  enjoyment.  A  very 
rich  and  valuable  literature  it  is,  too,  in  my  judgment  the  most 
so  of  any  single  body  that  exists;  though  much  of  it  has  per- 
ished in  the  recent  destruction  of  everything  Christian  the 
Turks  can  reach. 

The  fifth  century  is  called  the  Golden  Age  of  Armenian 
literature.  First  in  point  of  time  as  well  as  importance  comes 
the  Armenian  Bible.  The  furious  opposition  of  the  church  in 
the  Middle  Ages  to  letting  the  people  have  the  Bible  to  read 
in  their  own  tongues  seems  perfectly  ridiculous,  when  we  re- 
member that  in  the  early  Christian  Church  every  people  had 
it  in  their  own  language,  and  it  was  thought  to  be  the  greatest 
work  for  a  heathen  people  that  could  be  done,  to  translate 
the  Bible  for  them. 

It  was  not  thought  needful  then  to  keep  the  Word  of 
God  in  a  strange  tongue,  so  that  the  people  could  neither 
read  it  for  themselves  nor  understand  it  when  it  was  read  to 
them. 

There  were  probably  some  books  of  popular  tales  and 
songs  in  Armenia  before  the  fifth  century,  for  we  are  told  that 
there  was  an  Armenian  alphabet  to  write  them  in  as  early  as 
the  second,  but  if  so  they  have  all  perished,  and  the  alphabet 
was  doubtless  a  poor  and  meagre  one.  Armenian  scholars 
and  writers  read  Greek  or  Latin  books,  and  occassionally  He- 
brew or  Syriac  ones,  and  wrote  in  Greek  or  Latin  themselves ; 
if  it  was  necessary  to  write  Armenian,  as  in  letters,  they  made 
the  Greek,  Syriac  of  Persian  characters,  which  of  course  were 
insufficient  to  give  the  Armenian  sounds.  They  would  have 
got  along  with  this,  however,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  eager- 
ness of  Christian  enthusiasm  which  made  them  wish  to  give 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  137 

the  Bible  to  Armenia.    It  was  to  spread  the  Word  of  God,  not 
to  write  books,  that  they  were  anxious. 

St.  Mesrop  set  to  work  and  invented  a  very  perfect  alpha- 
bet of  thirty-six  letters,  to  which  two  have  been  added  since. 
According  to  one  of  his  disciples,  having  vainly  sought  help 
from  the  learned,  he  prayed  to  God,  and  received  the  new  al- 
phabet in  a  vision. 

This  was  about  405.  He  and  Sahag,  the  Pontiff,  at  once 
began  to  translate  the  New  Testament  and  the  Book  of 
Proverbs  from  a  poor  Greek  version,  the  best  they  had,  with 
the  assistance  of  two  pupils,  John  and  Joseph.  This  was  fin- 
ished in  406.  Many  years  later  they  undertook  the  translation 
of  the  Old  Testament;  but  as  the  Persians  had  destroyed  all  the 
Greek  manuscripts,  it  was  necessary  to  use  a  Syriac  version. 
The  same  two  assistants  aided  them;  but  being  sent  to  the 
Council  of  Ephesus  in  431,  they  brought  back  copies  of  the 
Greek  Septuagint,  and  the  old  translation  was  at  once 
dropped,  and  a  new  one  put  under  way.  But  all  found  their 
knowledge  of  Greek  too  imperfect  to  rely  on,  and  the  pupils 
were  sent  to  Alexandria  and  Athens  to  complete  their  educa- 
tion. On  their  return  they  seem  to  have  brought  a  new  Alex- 
andrian version,  and  corrections  were  made  from  that,  and  the 
work  completed,  most  likely  about  435. 

The  Bible  completed,  they  turned  to  other  labors.  The 
saints,  Sahag  and  Mesrop,  are  said  to  have,  written  six  hun- 
dred books  themselves,  all  in  Christian  theology  and  instruc- 
tion; and  the  pupils  from  the  schools  St.  Nierses  and  them- 
selves had  founded — the  chief  of  their  own  were  at  Naravank, 
Ayri,  and  Vochkhoraz — wrote  great  numbers  besides.  The 
first  original  work  of  Sahag  was  one  on  pastoral  theology, 
setting  forth  that  the  Church  of  Christ  is  the  Bride  of  Christ, 
and  the  ministers  must  therefore  be  holy,  pure,  and  obedient. 
He  wrote  many  epistles  to  Kings  and  Emperors,  all  of  whom 
reverenced  and  were  greatly  influenced  by  him. 

He  wrote  a  large  part  of  the  Armenian  Church  history, 


I38  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

composed  many  hymns,  and  translated  many  commentaries 
and  theological  works  from  the  Greek. 

Fortunately  during  this  period  the  government  of  Arme- 
nia was  very  good,  with  the  exception  of  one  period  of  two 
years  or  so;  even  after  its  partition,  for  close  on  forty  years 
it  had  practically  self-government  in  internal  affairs,  and  for 
another  decade  the  Christians  enjoyed  full  rights  of  worship. 
Bahram  IV.  at  Persia  (389-399),  who  helped  divide  it,  was 
a  monarch  who  loved  peace  above  all  things,  both  with  foreign 
countries  and  his  own  people,  his  successor,  Yazdegerd  I.  (399- 
420),  went  even  further,  employed  the  Catholicos  or  Pontiff 
on  embassies  to  Constantinople,  as  mediator  with  his  own 
brother,  and  made  his  son,  Shahpur,  governor  of  Persian 
Armenia,  continuing  the  Arsacidse  dynasty.  He  was  murdered 
by  his  nobles,  instigated  by  the  Zoroastrian  priests,  for  being 
too  tolerant  to  the  Christians,  and  his  successor,  Bahram  V., 
who  got  the  throne  by  favor  of  the  rebellious  elements,  tried 
to  please  them  by  persecuting  the  Christians.  This  involved 
him  in  a  war  with  Rome,  as  I  have  said,  and  after  a  couple 
of  years  he  made  peace  and  gave  toleration  again.  The  turn- 
ing of  Persian  Armenia  into  a  satrapy  in  428,  but  no  fresh 
persecution  was  undertaken  till  that  of  Yasgerd  II.  in  439, 
ending  in  Vartan's  revolt  just  detailed.  Shahpur  of  Armenia 
was  a  Prince  of  great  wisdom,  generosity,  and  public  spirit; 
he  patronized  men  of  learning,  founded  schools,  made  large 
grants  from  the  treasury  for  scholarship,  and  sent  scholars 
to  all  the  great  seats  of  learning  to  teach  and  acquire  the  lan- 
guages, literature,  and  history  of  other  nations,  after  which 
they  wrote  and  translated  hundreds  of  volumes.  Among  them 
were  Tavit,  Khosrohl,  Mampre,  and  Zazer;  a  great  historian, 
Eghishe,  author  of  the  life  of  Prince  Vartan,  and  a  great 
philosopher,  Yeznic.  These  are  only  a  few  out  of  scores 
worthy  of  mention. 

Dr.  Philip  Schaff  says :  "In  spite  of  the  unfavorable  state 
of  political  and  social  affairs  in  Armenia,  during  this  epoch, 
more  than  six  hundred  Greek  and  Syriac  works  were  trans- 


MOSES  KHORENTZI. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  139 

lated  within  the  forty  years  after  the  translation  of  the  Bible, 
and  as  in  many  cases  the  original  works  have  perished,  while 
the  translations  have  been  preserved,  the  great  importance  of 
this  whole  literary  activity  is  apparent.  Among  works  which 
in  this  way  have  come  down  to  its  are  several  books  by  Philo- 
Alexandrinus,  on  providence,  and  reason,  commentaries,  etc. ; 
the  Chronicle  of  Eusebius,  nearly  complete;  the  Epistles  of 
Ignatius,  translated  from  a  Syrian  version;  fifteen  homilies 
by  Severianus;  the  exegetical  writings  of  Ephriam, 
Syros,  previously  completely  unknown,  and  the  historical 
books  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  Synoptical  Gospels,  the  Para- 
bles of  Jesus,  and  the  fourteen  Pauline  Epistles;  the  Hexahe- 
meran  of  Basil  the  Great;  the  Catechesis  of  Cyril  of  Jerusalem; 
several  homilies  by  Chrysostom,  etc.  The  period,  however, 
was  not  characterized  by  translations  only.  Several  of  the 
disciples  of  Mesrop  and  Sahak  left  original  works.  Esnik 
wrote  four  books  against  heretics,  printed  at  Venice  in 
1826,  and  translated  into  French  by  Le  Vailliant  de  Florival, 
Paris,  1853.  A  biography  of  Mesrop  by  Koriun,  homilies  by 
Mambres,  and  various  writings  by  the  philosopher  David, 
have  been  published;  and  the  works  of  Moses  Chorenensis, 
published  in  Venice  in  1842,  and  again  in  1864,  have  acquired 
a  wide  celebrity;  his  history  of  Armenia  has  been  translated 
into  French,  Italian  and  Russian. 

Sixth  century:  The  leading  authors  in  this  century  are 
Abraham  Mamigonian,  who  wrote  on  the  Council  of  Ephesus; 
and  Bedross  Sonnian,  who  wrote  on  the  life  of  Christ.  There 
are,  however,  many  others  of  merit. 

Seventh  century:  By  far  the  greatest  name  in  this  cen- 
tury, and  indeed  the  best  known  and  most  important  name 
in  Armenian  literature  altogether,  is  the  writer  who  calls 
himself  Moses  Khorentzi,  well  known  to  all  historical  scholars 
as  Moses  of  Chorene,  author  of  the  History  of  Armenia.  For 
more  than  a  thousand  years,  up  to  this  century,  indeed,  this 
was  practically  the  only  source  of  Armenian  history  to  the 
world;  the  other  writers  were  inaccessible,  and  it  is  still  very 


[40  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

valuable,  though  not  in  just  the  way  it  was  once  thought  to 
be.  It  preserves  a  vast  amount  of  Armenian  tradition,  stories 
and  ballads,  and  real  history,  which  have  perished  except  for 
this  work,  but  he  seems  not  to  have  had  the  Greek  and  Latin 
histories  to  draw  from,  and  makes  a  great  many  mistakes. 
He  gives  a  life  of  himself,  and  says  he  is  writing  in  the  fifth 
century,  and  knew  Saints  Sohag  and  Mesrop  when  he  was 
young,  but  he  really  lived  in  the  seventh,  and  wrote  history 
about  the  year  640.  But  still  he  is  a  great  writer,  and  one  of 
Armenian's  literary  lights,  and  we  do  not  need  to  claim  for 
him  anything  more  than  he  deserves. 

Besides  Moses,  the  chief  authors  were  Gomidos,  Yeze, 
Malassagha,  Krikoradour,  Hovhounes,  Vertanes  and  Anania, 
They  wrote  chiefly  religious  books,  but  Anania  Shiragatzi 
is  the  author  of  a  valuable  work  on  astronomy. 

In  eighth  century,  the  leading  authors  were  Hovhom 
Imossdosser,  Sdepannoss  Sonnotzi,  and  Lehamt  Yeretz. 
They  wrote  hymns,  books  on  oratory,  etc.  In  ninth  century, 
Zakaria  Shaboah,  Toama,  and  Kaur  Ken,  etc.  In  tenth  cen- 
tury, the  chief  authors  were  Anania,  Khosrov  and  Krikor 
Noregatzi.  The  latter  wrote  a  prayer  book  in  ninety-five  chap- 
ters, which  one  of  the  missionaries  of  the  American  Board 
thinks  the  best  in  the  world.  He  says  that  only  Henry 
Beecher  was  able  to  offer  such  prayer  as  Krikor  Naregatzi. 
In  the  eleventh  century,  the  leading  writers  were  Hovhannes, 
Krikor,  and  Aristaguss.  In  this  century  some  of  the  best 
commentaries  were  written  on  the  Bible.  And  the  twelfth 
century  the  chief  authors:  Nerses  Shnorhali,  or  Nerses 
Graceful,  is  the  foremost  of  Armenian  poets,  and  a  thoroughly 
converted  and  consecrated  man  of  God.  His  hymns  were  in- 
tensely spiritual,  and  the  Armenians  still  chant  them  in  their 
church.  They  are  worthy  to  be  translated  into  English,  by 
Miss  Alice  Stone  Blackwell,  in  Boston,  Mass.,  as  follows: 

"O,  wayspring  sun  of  righteousness,  shine  forth  with  light  for  me; 

Treasure  of  mercy,  let  my  soul  thy  hidden  riches  see. 

Thou  before  whom  the  thoughts  of  men  lie  open  in  thy  sight, 


NERSES    SHNORHALI. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  141 

Unto  my  soul,  now  dark  and  dim,  grant  thoughts  that  shine  with  light. 

O,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  Almighty  One  in  Three, 

Care-taker  of  all  creatures,  have  pity  upon  me! 

Awake,  O  Lord,  awake  to  help,  with  grace  and  power  divine; 

Awaken  those  who  slumber  now,  Like  Heaven's  host  to  shine; 

O  Lord  and  Saviour,  life-giver,  unto  the  dead  give  life, 

And  raise  up  those  that  have  grown  weak  and  stumbled  in  the  strife; 

O  skillful  Pilot;  Lamp  of  Light,  that  burneth  bright  and  clear; 

Strength  and  assurance  grant  to  me,  now  hid  away  in  fear. 

O  Thou  that  makest  old  things  new,  renew  me  and  adorn; 

Rejoice  me  with  salvation,  Lord,  for  which  I  only  mourn. 

Giver  of  Good,  unto  my  sins  be  Thy  forgiveness  given; 

Lead  Thy  disciples,  Heavenly  King,  unto  the  flocks  of  Heaven. 

Defeat  the  evil  husbandman  that  soweth  tares  and  weeds; 

Wither  and  kill  in  me  the  fruits  of  all  his  evil  seeds; 

O  Lord,  grant  water  to  my  eyes,  that  they  may  shed  warm  tears, 

To  cleanse  and  wash  away  the  sin  that  in  my  soul  appears; 

On  me,  now  hid  in  shadow  deep,  shine  forth,  O  glory  bright; 

Sweet  juice,  quench  thou  my  soul's  keen  thirst;  show  me  the  path  of 

light 
Jesus,  whose  name  is  love,  with  love  crush  thou  my  stony  heart; 
Bedew  my  spirit  with  thy  blood,  and  bid  my  griefs  depart; 
O  Thou  that  even  in  fancy  art  so  sweet,  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
Grant  that  with  Thy  realty  my  soul  may  be  sufficed; 
When  Thou  shalt  come  again  to  earth,  and  all  Thy  glory  see, 
Upon  that  dread  and  awful  day,  O  Christ,  remember  me. 
Thou  that  redeemest  men  from  sin,  O  Saviour,  I  implore, 
Redeem  him  who  now  praiseth  Thee,  to  praise  Thee  evermore. 

This  hymns  the  perfectly  spiritual,  and  Armenians  with 
the  pleasure  and  gladly  still  singing  them  in  their  church  cere- 
monies in  the  every  morning.  (The  Archbishop  Nerses  the 
Graceful;  born  1102,  died  1172.)  In  this  12th  century,  Nerses 
Lampranatzi,  the  greatest  scholar  ever  born  in  Armenia,  was  a 
distinguished  commentator  on  the  Old  Testament,  and  wrote 
many  other  books.     Another  is  Yeremia. 

In  the  thirteenth  century,  the  leading  authors:  Krikor 
Sguevratzi,  Kevork  Sguevratzi,  Mukhitar  Anetzi,  Vanagan 
Vartabed,VartanVartabed,  etc.  They  wrote  histories,  commen- 
taries, etc.  As  the  Armenian  dynasties  ended  in  the  fourteenth 
century  at  Cilicia  by  the  last  King  Leo  VI.,  and  after  that  pe- 


l\2  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

riod  have  no  important  literature  among  the  Armenian 
churches. 

The  Armenians,  besides  the  language  of  country, 
wherever  they  may  be  found,  speak  their  own  tongue,  which 
is  a  distinct  language  of  itself,  and  belongs  to  the  Indo-Ger- 
manic  family  of  languages.  There  are,  however,  two  Arme- 
nian languages,  the  ancient  and  modern.  The  former  was 
the  language  of  the  pre-Christian  era;  and  after  the  conversion 
of  the  nation  to  Christianity,  and  the  translation  of  the  Bible 
into  it,  it  became  the  standard  language  of  the  literature.  "In 
its  syntactical  structure  the  old  Armenian  resembles  most 
nearly  the  classical  Greek."  Its  close  relation  to  the  Sanskrit, 
ancient  Persian,  Greek,  and  Latin  might  be  pointed  out  by 
numerous  words  commonly  found  in  these  and  Armenian 
languages. 

The  modern  Armenian  language  has  been  elevated  to 
the  dignity  of  a  respectable  language  almost  in  this  century 
by  numerous  original  and  translated  works  and  periodicals 
published  in  various  countries,  especially  by  the  translation 
of  the  Bible.  The  relation  of  this  language  to  the  ancient 
Armenian  might  be  compared  with  that  of  the  modern  Greek 
to  the  ancient  Greek  language. 

The  Armenian  literature  of  the  pre-Christian  era  has  not 
survived,  excepting  a  few  fragmentary  songs,  which  lingered 
even  until  the  time  of  Moses  of  Khorene,  in  whose  history 
of  Armenia  they  are  preserved,  and  the  inscriptions  of  the 
Kings  of  Van — if  we  admit  with  some — are  "the  oldest  speci- 
mens of  the  Asiatic  branch  of  the  Indo-Germanic  family." 

Christianity  brought  with  it  into  Armenia  a  great  love 
for  learning;  Armenian  youths  flocked  into  the  schools  at 
Athens,  Alexandria,  and  Constantinople.  Most  of  them  en- 
gaged themselves  in  translating  many  valuable  works  from 
the  Greek  and  other  languages  into  the  Armenian.  A  recent 
writer  speaks  of  these  translators  in  this  manner:  Some  of 
them  obtained  celebrity  in  their  chosen  pursuits.  To  this 
tendency  we  owe  the  preservation,  in  Amenian,  of  many  works 
that  have  perished  in  their  original  languages." 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  143 

The  original  works  consist  of  theological  and  expository 
discourses,  commentaries,  histories,  sacred  songs,  devotional 
works,  etc.  "The  existing  literature  of  the  Armenians  dates 
from  the  fourth  century,  and  is  essentially  and  exclusively 
Christian."  This  "literature  is  rich  and  continuous,  uninter- 
rupted through  all  the  Middle  Ages.  It  has  furnished  the 
philosophers,  historians,  theologians,  and  poets."  The  pecu- 
liar value  of  the  Armenian  literature  is  not  realized  as  it  should 
be,  by  European  and  American  scholars;  the  language  is 
well  worth  learning  for  what  it  can  give  the  student.  Not 
alone  is  the  original  work  that  comes  from  the  first  Christian 
nation  specially  valuable  for  its  bearing  on  primitive  Chris- 
tianity, but  the  Armenian  scholars  translated  great  numbers 
of  works  from  other  languages,  and  these  translations  are 
preserved  in  Armenian  monasteries  when  the  originals  have 
been  irretrievably  lost  in  the  wars,  and  burnings,  and  devasta- 
tions of  other  countries.  Six  hundred  volumes  of  this  old 
literature  are  known  to  exist  now,  two  hundred  in  Europe, 
and  four  hundred  in  different  places  in  Armenia. 

"They  (the  Armenians)  are  a  people  of  fine  physical  de- 
velopment, often  of  stature  and  powerful  frame,  indus- 
trious and  peaceable,  yet  more  jealous  of  their  rights  and 
liberties  than  any  other  Oriental  race.  They  passionately 
cherish  the  memory  of  their  fathers,  and  preserve  the 
use  of  their  national  language,  which  belongs  to  the 
Indo-European  family,  and  possess  a  literature  of  con- 
siderable importance."* 

"These  Armenians  are  a  superb  race  of  men;  their  cos- 
tume, which  is  plain  and  noble,  displays  to  advantage  their 
athletic  forms;  their  physiognomy  is  intelligent;  they  have 
florid  complexions,  black  and  blue  eyes,  and  beards  of  light- 
ish color.  They  are  the  Swiss  of  the  East.  Industrious,  peace- 
able and  regular  in  their  habits,  they  resemble  them  also  in 
calculation  and  love  of  gain.  The  women  are  lovely;  their 
features  are  pure  and  delicate,   and  their  serene  expression 

*"  Bible  Lands,"  page  307.    By  Van  Lennep. 


144  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

recalls  the  beauty  of  the  women  of  the  British  Islands  or  of 
the  peasants  of  Switzerland."* 

In  education  the-  Armenians  surpass  all  other  nations 
of  Western  Asia,  and  many  might  even  fairly  be  compared 
with  the  people  of  some  Roman  Catholic  countries.  But 
a  great  majority,  safely  may  it  be  said,  yet  sit  in  the  darkness 
of  ignorance  and  superstition.  This  is  a  sad  fact.  But  it  is 
impossible  to  be  otherwise,  as  long  as  the  sceptre  of  power 
is  in  the  hand  of  Islamism.  "Islamism  it  is  which  palsies 
every  effort  to  reform  throughout  the  empire.1'  "The  convic- 
tion is  inevitable,  that  until  the  power  of  Islamism  is  broken, 
the  true  reformation  of  this  land  is  an  impossibility."  Islam- 
ism is  a  moral  and  photophobia:  it  dreads  the  light  of  civiliza- 
tion and  Christianity. 

As  the  religion  of  the  Armenians,  Christianity,  though  not 
in  its  simplicity  and  purity  now  as  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is 
infinitely  superior  to  the  religion  of  Mohammed,  so  the  char- 
acter of  the  Armenians,  it  might  be  said,  is  in  the  same  pro- 
portion, superior  to  that  of  the  Mohammedans,  notwithstand- 
ing all  the  evil  influences  of  the  latter  upon  the  former.  The 
Armenians,  moreover,  lack  the  volatility  of  the  Greek  and  the 
laxity  of  the  Jews. 

Before  I  finish  this  chapter  I  wish  to  say  a  few  more 
words  about  the  beginning  of  Christianity  in  Armenia. 

Christianity  was  begun  in  Armenia,  perhaps,  as  early 
as  the  days  of  the  apostles,  and  had  been  mightily  re- 
vived by  Gregory  the  Illuminator.  Armenia  or  the  Armenians 
were  now  a  Christian  country,  or  people,  with  an  independent 
and  indigenous  church  and  a  Bible  in  their  own  language. 
She  possessed  a  body  of  devout  and  learned  clergy,  full  of 
energy  and  zeal.  Her  students  went  everywhere  to  seek 
knowledge  and  learning,  and  returned  home  to  divide  among 
her  numerous  congregations  the  mental  and  spiritual  treasures 
they  had  won.  Her  people  studied  the  Word  of  God,  and 
grew  in  grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of  God.  Christianity 
had  routed  and  annihilated   Paganism,  and  had  struck  her 

*  Lambertine,"  Voyage  in  Orient,"  volume  ii.,  page  190. 


INTERIOR    OF    ARMENIAN    CHURCH. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  145 

roots  deep  down  into  the  heart  and  conscience  of  the  nation. 
Like  a  noble  tree  on  the  mountain-top,  buffeted  by  the  storm 
and  yet  unshaken  from  its  post,  the  Armenian  Church  even 
in  near  future,  was  to  experience  the  tempests  of  persecution 
and  oppression,  and  yet  by  those  very  blasts  be  driven  to  strike 
root  more  deeply  still,  as  it  were,  into  the  very  Rock  of  Ages, 
and  to  stand  firm  during-  all  future  time  as  a  proof  of  her 
Master's  protecting  care  in  the  very  face  of  the  gates  of  hell. 


THE    ARMENIAN    CHURCH. 

The  Armenian  Church  was  and  still  is  a  national, 
independent  and  separate  body  as  much  as  the  Greek  or  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  older  than  either  of  them;  there- 
fore the  prosperity  of  the  nation  was  also  the  prosperity  of  the 
church.  The  nation  had  but  little  rest  after  her  embrace 
of  Christianity.  Christian  Armenia  during  the  first  three 
centuries  of  her  existence  made  such  a  defence  of  her  faith 
against  Zoroastrianism  that  the  latter  was  completely  par- 
alyzed and  no  longer  able  to  lift  up  the  sword  against  the 
followers  of  Christ. 

But  with  the  rise  of  Mohammedanism,  a  more  formidable, 
cruel,  unjust,  and  inhuman  enemy  arose. 

The  Saracens  or  the  Arabs,  who  were  both  the  soldiers 
and  missionaries  of  Mohammedanism,  literally  panted  after 
the  blood  of  the  Christians  as  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water 
brooks. 

Even  these,  after  sucking  all  the  blood  that  they  could  im- 
bibe, fell  off  like  swollen  leeches  and  themselves  were  swal- 
lowed up  by  the  Seljukian,  Tartar,  and  Mongolian  Turks,  who 
surpassed  even  the  Arabs  in  cruelty  and  deserved  to  be  called 
"the  unspeakable  Turk."  The  Greeks,  with  all  their  subtlety, 
volatility,  perfidy,  intrigues,  and  intolerable  bigotry,  could 
do  no  more  than  to  cause  some  of  the  corruptions  of  their 
church  to  creep  into  the  Armenian  Church.  But  this  is  not 
all;  for  while  the  Armenians  were  driven  into  the  mountain- 


I46  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

ous  district  of  Cilicia,  the  land  of  the  brave  Apostle  Paul,  by 
the  Mongolian  and  Tartar  invaders,  who  spread  desolation, 
destruction,  and  death  wherever  their  feet  touched  the  soil, 
there  came  with  the  appearance  of  the  crusaders  in  the  East  a 
number  of  zealous  missionaries  of  the  Romish  Church,  who, 
instead  of  preaching  and  converting  millions  of  Mohamme- 
dans to  Christianity,  tried  to  bring  the  Armenian  Church  into 
a  subordination  and  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope  of  Rome. 

Though  the  missionaries  of  the  Romish  Church  un- 
doubtedly knew  that  their  church  excelled  the  Church  of 
Armenia  in  corruption,  in  superstition,  and  nonscriptural 
claims  and  dogmas,  yet  they  took  advantage  of  the  oppressed 
condition  of  the  people  and  persistently  disturbed  their  church. 
The  overthrow  of  the  political  existence  of  the  Armenians, 
according  to  some,  is  due  to  their  intercourse  with  the  West- 
ern nations,  as  we  have  seen.  After  this  overthrow  the  Church 
of  Armenia  became  both  the  custodian  of  the  nation's  ex- 
istence and  the  defender  of  her  independence. 

The  Armenians,  owing  to  the  frequent  incursions,  de- 
vastations, barbarous  massacres,  and  being  led  captives  in 
great  numbers  by  the  Saracens,  afterwards  by  the  Mongolian 
and  Tartar  hordes,  were  compelled  to  immigrate  into  safer  dis- 
tricts and  countries,  especially  after  the  overthrow  of  the  inde- 
pendent dynasty  in  Cilicia. 

When  Constantinople  was  taken  by  the  Turks,  Sultan 
Mohammed  II.  appointed  Bishop  Hovaghim,  of  Brusa,  the 
Patriarch  over  the  Armenians  then  in  Constantinople  and  in 
vicinity.  This  naturally  also  drew  a  good  number  of  the  Ar- 
menians from  other  parts,  while  nearly  two  centuries  before 
this  time  Jerusalem  was  also  made  the  seat  of  a  Patriarch. 

The  seat  of  the  Archbishop  at  Sis  in  Cilicia,  Akhtamar, 
in  the  Island  of  Lake  Van,  and  Etchmiadzin  by  bishops  fear- 
ing the  title  of  Catholicos.  Some  of  the  occupants  of  these 
seats  were  very  much  like  some  of  the  popes  of  Rome  at  the 
expense  of  honor,  distinction,  and  well-being  of  their  people 
they  sought  honor  and   distinction,  but  some  others  nobly 


ARMENIAN    CATHOLICOS    IN    CHURCH    UNIFORM. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  147 

suffered  privation,  prosecution,  exile,  and  martyrdom  with 
their  flock. 

The  Papal  missionaries,  under  the  order  of  the  Unitors 
who  had  insidiously  sown  the  seeds  of  dissension  in  the  Ar- 
menian Church,  took  advantage  of  every  calamity  that  befell 
the  people,  and  afterwards  being  also  augmented  by  the 
Jesuits  and  their  sagacity,  until  they  converted  this  dissension 
into  a  volcanic  eruption  about  the  beginning  of  the  last  cen- 
tury. Consequently  thousands  of  the  Armenians  avowed  their 
allegiance  in  spiritual  matters  to  the  Pope  of  Rome. 

The  Mohammedan  conquerors  always  dealt  with  their 
Christian  subjects  with  the  utmost  contempt,  unmodified  in- 
justice, unabated  cruelty,  and  relentless  persecution.  Un- 
doubtedly did  many  of  the  people  delude  themselves  with  the 
idea  that  by  uniting  with  the  Romish  Church  they  would  enjoy 
protection  through  the  influence  of  Romish  France,  then  more 
influential  in  the  East,  for  it  is  quite  improbable  that  they 
could  believe  that  the  Romish  Church  was  any  better  in  sim- 
plicity and  purity  than  the  old  Armenian  Church. 

The  superiority  of  the  educational  institutions  of  the  Jesu- 
its to  that  of  the  Armenians  was  also  an  inducement  then  for 
some  of  the  youths  to  flock  into  their  schools.  The  monastery, 
founded  by  Makhitar,  of  Sebastia  (now  Sivas),  about  the 
beginning  of  the  last  century  in  St.  Lazarus'  Island,  in  Italyy 
and  the  literary  pursuits  of  the  Mekhetarits,  who  edited  many 
old  Armenian  writings  and  translated  from  the  Latin  writers, 
always  tinted  with  the  Papal  views,  rendered  great  service 
to  the  Romish  Church.  Many  a  sad  event  is  connected  with 
this  Papal  movement  which  our  space  will  not  allow  us  to  nar- 
rate; but  suffice  it  to  say  that  this  movement  resulted  in  the 
separation  of  about  one  hundred  thousand  Armenians  from  the 
Armenian  Church  (this  separation  took  place  in  1830),  and  it 
has  now  a  standstill  condition. 

The  following  is  from  a  French  writer,  Mr.  A.  Ubicini, 
who  speaks  of  these  sad  events  in  detail:  "Fortunately  for 
the  Catholics  they  found  a  powerful  protector  in  De  Feriol, 


I48  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

the  French  ambassador,  who  obtained  an  order  from  the  Porte, 
in  1783  for  the  deposition  and  banishment  of  the  (Armenian) 
patriarch,  Avedik.  Exiled  to  Chios,  he  was  clandestinely  car- 
ried off  during  the  passage,  and  conducted,  some  say,  to  Mes- 
sina, others  to  Marseilles,  and  thence  to  the  Island  of  St.  Mar- 
guerite, where  he  died  of  martyrdom.  There  were  strong 
grounds  for  suspecting  the  Jesuits  established  in  Chios  and 
at  Galata  of  having  contrived  this  plot  in  concert  with  the 
French  ambassador."* 

Often  heard  are  such  expressions  as  "Armenian  Catholic 
Church,"  and  many  people  think  it  simply  a  "branch"  of  the 
Great  Eastern  or  Greek  Church. 

It  would  be  just  as  sensible  to  consider  the  Greek  a 
branch  of  the  Armenian  Church.  Each  of  them  represents 
a  form  of  Church  organization  and  body  of  doctrine  which 
best  satisfied  the  representatives  of  certain  races  or  nations. 
The  advantage  of  the  Greek  was  that  that  race — or  at  least 
its  speech  and  thought — happened  to  be  dominant  in  the 
Roman  Empire  at  the  time  Christianity  won  the  battle, 
and  so  had  the  official  backing  of  the  Empire,  and  was  able 
to  outgrow  and  crush  down  the  others.  It  was  not  any  truer, 
any  more  the  real  church  of  Christ,  than  the  Syrian  or 
African,  or  Armenian.  It  was  not  the  earliest,  for  the  very 
first  Christian  Churches  sprang  from  the  Jews.  It  was  not 
even  the  earliest  great  national  church  body,  for  the  Arme- 
nian Church  has  that  distinction. 

The  foundation  of  the  Armenian  Church  by  St.  Gregory 
and  Tiridates.  That  church  has  its  own  head — the  Catholicos 
or  Pontiff,  who  is  no  more  a  subordinate  of  either  the  Pope 
or  the  Greek  Patriarch  than  the  Grand  Llama  is  or  Dr.  Park- 
hurst — and  its  own  self-subsistent  being. 

As  to  the  differences  between  them,  in  the  first  place  the 
Armenian  is  a  purely  Trinitarian.  There  is  no  room  for  Uni- 
tarianism  within  its  lines. 

*  "  Letters  on  Turkey,"  volume  ii.,  pages  250-7. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  149 

When  Gregory  the  Illuminator  was  preaching  his  ser- 
mons on  the  hills  and  plains  of  Armenia,  he  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  national  church  in  the  Trinity.  His  first  sermon 
was  on  the  Trinity,  and  his  last  sermon  was  on  the  Trinity, — 
in  all  his  sermons  he  asserted  the  Trinity — the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  Holy  Ghost;  Jesus  Christ  being  a  perfect  man  and  perfect 
God;  in  His  person  we  see  God  in  man  and  man  in  God;  a 
perfect  Emmanuel;  God  with  us.  We  see  in  him  that  man 
can  be  united  with  God.  The  only  possible  way  of  salvation 
is  through  Jesus  Christ.  He  is  the  Saviour  of  the  world  and 
none  else,  and  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  shall  be  saved. 
This  is  the  belief  and  the  only  belief  of  the  Armenian  Church. 
Its  members  repeat  the  Apostolic  Creed  and  the  Lord's  Prayer 
every  day  in  their  church. 

Secondly,  the  Armenian  has  never  been  a  persecuting 
church,  and  every  other  one  of  the  great  Christian  churches 
has  been.  The  Armenian  Church,  as  befits  the  first  and  most 
Christlike  of  all  the  bodies  that  professed  Christ  before  Lu- 
ther's time,  has  always  been  the  broadest,  the  most  inclusive, 
the  most  untechnical  of  churches.  It  fellowships  with  all 
other  churches.  It  demands  only  that  men  shall  profess  and 
believe  in  its  own  church  body.  Its  canons  are  conversion 
and  regeneration,  purity,  holiness,  being  born  again  from  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  becoming  Christlike.  It  holds  that  Chris- 
tianity is  brotherhood  through  Jesus  Christ,  and  gives  no 
warrant  for  oppression  or  persecution,  curses  or  anathemas. 
But  other  churches  hold  that  no  one  can  be  saved  outside  of 
their  own  churches  (the  Greek  and  Catholic  churches).  The 
Armenian  Church  has  been  repeatedly  persecuted  by  both, 
and  has  always  protested  against  the  principle  of  it,  as  well 
as  against  the  pretensions  of  the  Popes  to  universal  sway. 

The  next:  That  the  Armenian  contention  is  for  free- 
dom of  will,  freedom  of  conscience,  freedom  of  worship,  and 
political  freedom,  is  the  cause  of  their  being  hated  both  by  the 
Mohammedans  and  by  their  so-called  Christian  neighbors. 

The  next  one:     As  to  theological  questions  the  Arme- 


150  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

man  Church  fathers  did  not  pay  much  attention  to  them.  Not 
because  they  were  not  able,  because  they  were  too  able,  and 
very  far-sighted.  They  knew  well  that  such  questions  can 
never  be  solved,  no  matter  how  many  centuries  pass  away, 
no  matter  how  great  scholars  the  world  produces;  therefore 
they  would  not  enter  into  the  debate.  And  so  every  Arme- 
nian scholar  has  his  own  theology. 

The  Armenian  Church  has  not  a  theology  or  any  special 
official  doctrine;  and  this  is  a  very  fortunate  thing  for  the  Ar- 
menians. They  care  more  for  righteousness  of  life  than  for 
particular  beliefs  about  the  way  of  getting  it. 

When  there  was  a  great  controversy  in  the  Council  of 
Chalcedon,  451  A.  I).,  about  the  nature  of  Christ,  Armenians 
did  not  care  about  it.  Some  of  the  great  theologians  said 
Christ  had  two  natures:  some  said  he  had  only  one  nature; 
the  Armenian  bishops  would  not  give  any  opinion.  They  be- 
lieve in  Christ  as  their  Saviour,  that  is  the  essential  thing;  but 
whether  He  has  two  natures  or  one  nature  is  not  essential. 
Then  came  the  controversy  about  the  Holy  Spirit.  Whence 
does  the  Holy  Spirit  proceed?  Some  say  from  the  Father  and 
the  Son,  some  simply  from  the  Father.  When  the  question 
came  before  the  Armenian  bishops  they  replied  that  they  did 
not  care  whence  he  proceeded.  They  knew  that  they  needed 
the  Holy  Spirit  for  guidance  in  spiritual  life,  for  regeneration ; 
they  knew  that  the  Holy  Spirit  was  one  of  the  persons  in  the 
Trinity;  and  that  was  enough  for  them. 

The  Armenian  Church  claims  to  be  apostolic  in  its  origin. 
Christianity  being  introduced  into  Armenia  by  the  Apostles, 
and  having  survived  the  persecutions  of  heathenism  during 
the  first  three  centuries,  finally  subdued  the  entire  nation 
about  the  end  of  the  third  century. 

St.  Gregory  the  Illuminator  was  sent  to  Csesarea,  Cappa- 
docia,  to  be  ordained  Bishop  of  Armenia,  A.D.  302.  This  cus- 
tom of  the  ordination  of  the  bishops  of  Armenia  at  Csesarea 
lasted  until  the  patriarchate  of  Nerses  the  Great  (A.  D.  363), 
one  of  the  noblest  and  holiest  bishops  of  the  Armenian 
Church. 


INTERIOR    OF    ARMENIAN    CHURCH. 


THE    SCRIPTURES,    SACRED    VESSELS    AND       ORNAMENTS    USED    IN 
ARMENIAN    CHURCHES. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  151 

During  the  period  of  his  patriarchate  the  clergy  and  the 
laity  of  the  nation  unanimously  agreed  to  have  their  bishops 
ordained  in  Armenia  by  the  Armenian  bishops.  It  is  evident, 
therefore,  from  the  fact  that  there  is  no  higher  rank  or  order 
than  that  of  a  bishop  or  presbyter,  which  names  are  inter- 
changeably used  in  the  New  Testament,  as  Vartabed  (teacher), 
M.  Muradian,  of  Jerusalem,  correctly  states  in  his  recent  "His- 
tory of  the  Apostolic  Church  of  Armenia."*  Here  it  may  be 
also  interesting  to  add  as  a  fact  of  history  that  St.  Gregory 
and  his  immediate  successors,  his  sons  and  grandsons,  and 
for  a  length  of  several  centuries,  the  bishops  were  married 
and  the  heads  of  families.  Celibacy  was  not  required  of  them, 
neither  separation,  but  it  was  optional  with  them  to  choose 
either,  or  none. 

"The  election  of  the  bishops,  like  that  of  all  the  Arme- 
nian clergy,  takes  place  by  universal  suffrage ;"  the  ordination, 
at  Etchmiadzin,  Akhtamar,  or  at  Sis  in  Cilicia  by  the  presid- 
ing bishop  or  Catholicos  and  his  associates. 

The  priests  or  elders  (yeretz)  are  chosen  by  the  people 
from  among  themselves,  who  are  expected  to  have  a  toler- 
able knowledge  of  the  Bible  and  the  liturgy  of  the  church — 
some  in  former  days  knew  very  little  of  theirs — and  are  or- 
dained by  the  bishops.  The  priests  live  with  their  families 
among  the  people  and  are  occupied  with  their  daily  duties 
in  the  church  services  morning  and  evening;  they  perform 
also  baptism  for  the  infants,  and  marrying  and  burying  the 
young  and  old. 

"The  Armenian  clergy  receive  no  stipends,  and  exact  no 
contributions  like  those  of  the  Greek  Church:  their  reve- 
nues depend  entirely  on  the  voluntary  contributions  of  the 
faithful.  It  is  therefore  rare  to  meet  with  a  wealthy  priest, 
though  some  few  are  in  easy  circumstances."f 

With  respect  to  morals  also,  though  it  is  difficult  to  pro- 
nounce absolutely  on  the  subject,  the  Armenian  clergy  appear 

*See  page  35  in  the  original. 

t  "  Letters  on  Turkey,"  Vol.  ii.,  pp.  285-286. 


152  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

to  be  very  superior  to  the  Greek.  The  deacons  are  elected 
and  ordained  like  the  priest,  and  have  no  income  whatever; 
they  serve  the  church  and  assist  the  priests  in  the  daily  ser- 
vices of  the  church. 

There  is  another  class  of  clergy  of  the  Armenian  Church. 
Those  forming-  this  class  are  called  Vartabeds,  or  doctors 
in  theology.  It  is  very  probable  that  the  very  necessity  of  the 
case  created  this  order.  In  the  former  days,  after  the  conver- 
sion of  the  Armenian  nation  to  Christianity,  most  of  the  lit- 
erary men  were  of  the  clergy,  and  the  monasteries  became 
the  seat  of  learning,  and  those  who  loved  a  literary  life  would 
retire  to  those  places  and  pursue  such  a  course.  Asceticism 
of  the  East  also  must  have  played  a  good  part  in  it. 

They  at  first,  most  likely,  voluntarily  preferred  celibacy, 
in  order  to  devote  their  whole  time  to  learning  and  teaching, 
and  were  ordained  evangelists,  to  visit  the  churches  and  to 
preach  the  Gospel  to  the  people,  who  were  so  often  perse- 
cuted and  oppressed  by  their  enemies.  But  what  was  with 
them  optional  has  become  now  a  condition,  for  that  order. 
Though  "the  Vartabeds  form  the  most  enlightened  and 
learned  portion  of  the  Armenian  clergy,"  and  from  them  are 
the  bishops  elected  and  ordained,  but  unfortunately  "they  are 
restricted  to  celibacy." 

The  Armenian  Church  differs  from  that  of  Rome  on  the 
following  points : 

(I.)  It  denies  the  supremacy  of  the  bishop  of  Rome. 

(II.)  It  rejects  the  authority  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon 
as  ecumenic. 

(III.)  It  rejects  the  introduction  of  filioque  into  the  creed, 
but  admits  that  the  Holy  Spirit  proceeds  from  the  Father. 

(IV.)  It  rejects  the  Romish  doctrine  of  purgatory. 

(V.)    It  rejects  also  indulgence. 

(VI.)  It  does  not  withhold  the  Bible  from  the  people,  but 
encourages  them  to  read  it. 

The  orthodoxy  of  the  Armenian  Church  would  not  have 
been  questioned  by  some  of  the  Western  writers  had  they 


.--...' 


fe»P.U--B„. 


A    RETIRED    ARMENIAN    BISHOP. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  153 

drawn  their  information  from  the  native  authors,  instead  of 
drawing  them  from  some  later  Greek  and  Latin  writers.  The 
following  is  a  translation  from  a  recent  Armenian  work,  en- 
titled, "The  History  of  the  Holy  Apostolic  Church  of  Arme- 
nia." The  author  is  Vartabed  M.  Muradian,  of  St.  James' 
Monastery  at  Jerusalem.  It  is  sweet  and  comforting  to  dis- 
course of  the  revealed  truths  of  the  Bible,  which  is  the  only 
foundation  of  undefiled  doctrine,  to  which  always  have  the 
Holy  Church  fathers  trusted  for  the  defense  of  faith. 

"The  Bible  teaches  concerning  God  two  things:  First, 
that  God  is  one  and  there  is  no  other  God  beside  Him. 
Second,  that  divine  nature  is  common  to  the  Father,  to  the 
Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  these  three  persons  have  one 
Godhead.  This  is  the  faith  of  the  Christians  in  harmony 
with  the  manifest  word  of  the  Bible.  This  trinity  is  the  foun- 
dation of  the  Christian  faith,  and  the  three  persons  have  one 
influence  for  our  salvation,  but  in  different  ways  of  manifest- 
ing it;  that  is,  the  Father  calls  and  causes  us  to  approach  His 
Son,  whom  be  begat  from  eternity  and  prepared  His  coming. 
The  Son  came  from  heaven  and  was  united  with  human 
nature  that  he  might  save  us  from  sin  and  give  eternal  life 
to  our  souls.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  our  regenerator,  who  re- 
established in  us  the  likeness  of  God,  making  us  receptive  of 
the  salvation  offered  of  God. 

"The  Bible  teaches  that  Christ,  on  account  of  His  eternal 
generation  from  the  Father,  is  called  the  Son  of  God,  but  for 
His  incarnation  in  time,  the  Son  of  Man,  brother  of  men, 
through  whom  we  obtained  the  right  to  call  God  our  Father, 
and  for  this  reason  the  Church  confesses  in  the  personality 
of  Christ  two  natures,  divine  and  human,  distinct  and  insep- 
arable in  their  union.  This  mystery  of  incarnation  is  the 
great  mystery  of  God's  love  for  the  world;  and  as  much  as 
this  is  incomprehensible  and  inconceivable  by  human  intelli- 
gence, so  much  is  it  natural  with  divine  love  and  omnipo- 
tent nature.  In  this  great  mystery  was  the  salvation  of  man- 
kind; for  this  the  entire  humanity  waited,  and  therefore  the 


154  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

law  and  the  prophets  in  this  mystery  of  incarnation  were 
fulfilled.  Because  Christ,  as  the  true  Messiah,  performed 
prophetic,  priestly  and  kingly  offices,  and  became  for  us 
true  prophet,  true  priest  and  true  King;  teaching  the  doctrine 
of  redemption,  elucidating  the  past,  the  present,  and  the  fu- 
ture of  mankind,  forgiving  and  reigning  over  us  with  a 
heavenly  and  spiritual  kingdom. 

"The  Bible  teaches  that  the  Holy  Spirit  proceeds  and 
flows  from  the  Father,  not  as  a  common  influence  of  God,  but 
as  a  person  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  infinite,  eternal,  a  true  God. 
But  with  respect  to  us,  the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  source  of  union 
of  God  to  Man;  the  seal  by  which  we  are  known  as  Chris- 
tians; because  without  the  Holy  Spirit's  dwelling  in  us,  His 
help  and  guidance,  we  are  only  alive,  for  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
co-worker  with  the  Father  and  the  Son  for  our  salvation;  and 
as  the  manifestation  of  God  through  Christ,  to  the  world,  is 
called  redemption,  so  also  the  revelation  of  God  through  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  denominated  regeneration  and  sanctification. 

"At  this  present  day  there  is  not  a  book  like  the  Bible 
from  which  the  intellectual  world  has  been  able  to  derive 
so  much  good  for  the  real  well  being  and  progress  of  human 
society.  There  is  not  a  book,  and  cannot  be,  that  is  trans- 
lated into  so  many  languages  and  is  distributed  so  exten- 
sively as  the  Bible.  Our  immortal  translators  felt  this  great 
want,  and  they  began  the  first  step  of  the  nation's  enlighten- 
ment and  progress  by  the  translation  and  study  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  and  this  translation  is  so  choice,  with  various 
praises  bestowed  upon  it  by  the  European  scholars  of  the 
present  century,  who  know  the  Armenian  language,  it  is 
called  the  Queen  of  Versions.  But  we  will  be  giving  a  still 
greater  praise  to  our  forefathers  if  we  generalize  the  study  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures  among  our  people  and  rear  the  edifice  of 
education  upon  that  solid  foundation  of  the  Word  of  God."* 

By  no  means  should  the  reader  think  that  the  writer  is 

*  "  History  of  the  Holy  Apostolic  Church  of  Armenia,"  pp.  171-121, 127-8. 


AN    ARMENIAN    PRIEST    IN    CHURCH    UNIFORM. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  155 

partial  in  not  telling  something  of  the  superstitions,  formal- 
ism and  ignorance  still  in  existence  and  practice  among  the 
Armenians  and  in  their  church.  It  has  often  been  written 
and  spoken,  even  with  a  great  lack  both  of  knowledge  and 
charity.  Had  those  writers  on  these  subjects  of  the  Armenian 
Church  and  people  remembered  that  for  almost  fifteen  centu- 
ries this  church  has  been  in  constant  conflict  with  Paganism, 
Zoroastrianism,  Mohammedanism,  and  the  evil  influences  of 
the  corrupt  Greek  and  Roman  Churches,  they  would  not 
have  been  so  severe  in  their  denunciations  of  that  old  relic  of 
the  ancient  Christian  Church. 

Often  were  the  bishops  and  priests  in  the  battlefield  with 
their  flocks  against  the  enemy  of  the  Church.  Often  were  they 
in  chains,  in  imprisonment,  in  hostage,  at  the  Pagan,  Mo- 
hammedan, and  so  called  Christian  courts;  often  were  they 
carried  away  into  captivity  and  massacred  by  their  captors. 
How  could  they  give  more  attention  than  they  did  give  to 
the  education  and  enlightenment  of  their  people, 
and  to  the  purity  of  the  Church?  Even  to-day  the  best 
intellects  of  the  Armenian  clergy,  the  lovers  of  the  reform  and 
purity  of  the  Church  and  people,  are  in  either  exile  or 
bondage  by  the  Russian,  Persian,  and  Ottoman  Empires. 
These  circumstances  certainly  will  not  justify  the  condition 
of  the  Armenian  Church,  but  they  ought  to  modify  the  se- 
verity of  our  judgment  and  fill  us  with  a  deeper  sympathy, 
with  a  truer  Christian  love  and  activity  for  its  reform,  purity, 
and  spiritual  prosperity. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

.MISSIONARY    WORK    AMONG    THE   ARMENIANS   IN    TURKEY    AND 
ITS     RESULTS. 

When  the  Congregational  and  Presbyterian  churches  in 
the  United  States  were  united  for  the  work  of  evangelizing  the 
world,  one  of  the  first  things  they  did  was  to  send  Revs.  Pliny 
Fisk,  Levi  Parsons,  W.  Goodell  and  Bird,  that  they  may  spread 
the  Gospel  throughout  Turkey  and  reform  the  Christian  people 
who  were  sitting  in  darkness.  This  was  between  1819  and 
1823. 

These  missionaries  were  landed  and  stationed  at  Beyrouth, 
Syria,  for  the  purpose  of  evangelizing  the  Armenians  in  that 
city.  In  March  and  April,  1821,  two  of  them  went  to  Jerusa- 
lem, that  they  may  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  large  multitude  of 
Armenian  pilgrims  who  flocked  there  at  that  time  on  account 
of  their  Easter. 

Rev.  Levi  Parsons,  one  of  the  missionaries  who  went  to 
Jerusalem,  was  an  amiable,  gentle,  and  sweet-natured  man,  and 
soon  won  the  confidence  and  love  of  all  who  met  him,  especially 
of  the  notables  in  the  Armenian  church  at  Jerusalem.  These 
men,  after  they  found  out  Air.  Parsons'  mission  to  Jerusalem, 
did  not  only  consent  to  have  the  work  of  reformation  begun  in 
Jerusalem,  but  they  also  asked  him  to  go  to  Constantinople, 
confer  with  the  priests  and  notables  of  the  church  there,  and 
begin  the  work  of  reformation. 

This  proposition  Mr.  Parsons  gladly  wrote  to  the  mission- 
aries in  Beyrouth.  But  owing  to  their  unfamiliarity  with  the 
Armenian  language,  Revs.  Goodell  and  Bird  thought  it  would 
be  best  not  to  start  any  mission  in  Jerusalem  for  the  time  being. 
They  thought  it  would  be  expedient  for  them  to  undertake  the 


AN    ARMENIAN     MONK. 


AND    THE    ARMENIANS.  1 57 

work  only  after  the  translation  of  the  Bible  in  the  Turkish  lan- 
guage. But  in  the  Providence  of  God  a  way  was  being  pre- 
pared for  them.  For  Bishop  Dyonisius  and  Krikor  Vartabed 
— the  latter  an  Armenian  bishop — being  enlightened  by  the 
Gospel  light,  rendered  the  missionaries  invaluable  help  to  trans- 
late the  Bible,  both  in  Armeno-Turkish  and  Armenian  vernacu- 
lar. With  the  untiring  efforts  of  these  two  prelates  the  Bible 
was  printed  in  the  vernacular,  and  was  spread  by  them,  in  com- 
pany with  one  of  the  missionaries,  far  and  wide  in  Asia  Minor. 
They  went  almost  everywhere,  and  gave  away  Bibles.  They 
came  to  my  native  town,  which  fact  I,  as  a  child,  remember  very 
distinctly. 

At  the  close  of  this  missionary  tour,  in  1826,  Rev.  W. 
Goodell,  in  company  with  two  young  Armenians,  went  to  the 
island  of  Malta  for  the  purpose  of  printing  the  Bible  in  the 
popular  Armenian.  They  were  there  four  years,  and  on  their 
return  the  missionaries  decided  to  make  Constantinople  a  mis- 
sion station,  that  they  may  start  the  work  of  reformation  over 
there.  In  1831  and  '32  the  American  Board  sent  Revs.  Elias 
Riggs,  Dwight,  Bliss  and  Cyrus  Hamlin  to  work  with  Rev.  W. 
Goodell.  The  first  thing  the  missionaries  did  in  Constanti- 
nople was  to  establish  a  school,  educate  the  youth,  print  and 
publish  Bibles  and  portions  of  Scriptures  and  religious  tracts, 
thus  to  spread  religious  knowledge  and  enlightenment  among 
the  Armenians.  To  this  some  ignorant  people  opposed.  But 
the  chief  men  and  especially  the  Armenian  patriarchs  were  in 
hearty  sympathy  with  the  missionaries  in  regard  to  the  reforma- 
tion of  their  national  church  and  the  enlightenment  of  their 
youth. 

But  right  here  the  Missionaries  had  another  opposition. 
The  Jesuit  propagandists,  who  were  in  Constantinople  to  con- 
vert Armenians  to  Roman  Catholicism,  were  jealous  of  the 
missionaries,  and  did  all  they  could  to  frustrate  all  their  labors 
in  the  way  of  evangelization. 

In  1836  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Greek  patriarchs  tried 
very  hard  to  influence  the  Armenian  patriarch  against  the  mis- 


I58  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

sionaries.  In  this  they  were  successful.  They  now  set  to  work 
and  enticed  the  Armenians  away  from  the  missionaries  and 
everything  that  savored  of  Protestantism.  The  result  was  that 
the  Armenian  patriarch  changed  his  friendly  attitude  toward 
the  missionaries,  convened  a  general  ecclesiastical  meeting, 
sent  an  encyclical  to  all  the  Armenian  churches  throughout  the 
Turkish  empire,  forbidding  every  Armenian  from  having  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  missionaries,  with  the  Protestant  Bibles 
and  with  the  Protestant  views.  Anybody  who  opposed  or  dis- 
obeyed, any  one  who  did  not  burn  his  Bible  would  be  under 
the  ban  and  anathema  of  the  church.  But  in  the  wonderful 
providence  of  God  thousands  of  the  Bibles  had  already  found 
entrance  to  many  an  Armenian  family. 

The  result  of  this  official  opposition  by  the  church  was  the 
general  persecution  of  Protestant  brethren  and  missionaries  by 
the  common  people  and  the  burning  of  thousands  of  volumes 
of  the  Scriptures.  I  myself  was  beaten  and  imprisoned 
three  times.  I  had  to  keep  my  Testament  in  my  pocket 
for  three  months,  could  not  read  it  openly,  but  had  to  look  for 
secluded  places  to  read  the  words  of  life. 

This  general  and  wide-spread  persecution  resulted  in  an 
endless  commotion.  Everybody  discussed  the  question.  In 
every  house,  street-corner  and  meeting-house  the  general  topic 
of  discussion  was  the  annihilation  of  Protestantism  from  Tur- 
kev.  Although  the  missionaries  and  the  brethren  were  very 
patient  in  persecution  and  persevering  in  the  good  work  they 
had  undertaken,  time  came  when  they  could  no  more  endure 
the  persecution.  This  was  on  July  I,  1846 — the  persecution 
had  lasted  ten  years,  when  the  first  evangelical  Armenian 
church  was  organized  in  Constantinople.  This  was  also  the 
first  Protestant  church  in  Turkey. 

From  1846  to  '55  the  new  evangelical  church  was  under 
the  anathema  of  the  Armenian  national  church.  As  a  result  of 
this  ban  all  sorts  of  intercourse,  intermarriage  and  trade  with 
the  Protestants  were  prohibited  to  the  Gregorian  Armenians. 
The  brethren,  a  large  part  of  whom  belonged  to  the  poorer 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  1 59 

class,  were  often  unable  to  earn  their  daily  bread,  for  no  Grego- 
rian would  hire  a  Protestant.  Thus  destitution,  deprivation, 
ostracism  and  constant  persecution  were  the  natural  outcome 
of  the  establishment  of  this  new  church. 

It  was  right  at  this  time  that  the  wonderful  Providence  of 
God  intervened  in  behalf  of  the  brethren.  In  1853  Crimean 
war  broke  out  between  Russia  and  Turkey,  and  naturally  the 
brethren  were  the  greatest  sufferers  among  the  rest  of  the 
people.  But  Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin,  with  his  natural  ingenuity, 
generosity  and  capability,  established  flour  mills  to  furnish 
loaves  of  bread  to  the  Turkish  army.  This  he  did  under  a  con- 
tract with  the  Turkish  government.  In  his  mills  he  employed 
as  many  Protestants  as  he  could,  and  so  almost  all  of  them 
were  able  to  support  themselves  for  three  years.  The  earnings 
of  the  mills  were  so  great  that  Dr.  Hamlin  was  able  to  build 
several  churches  and  lay  aside  some  amount  of  money  for  a 
further  emergency.  At  the  close  of  the  Russo-Turkish  war  in 
1856  a  treaty  was  signed  in  Paris,  according  to  which  religious 
freedom  was  granted  to  all  the  Protestants  and  evangelical 
churches  throughout  Turkev.  This  was  one  of  the  numerous 
achievements  of  Rev.  Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin,  whose  name  is  so  dear 
to  every  Armenian  heart. 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  yott  have  seen  by  the  foregoing- 
brief  description  how  the  missionaries  and  the  early  brethren 
were  persecuted  and  subjected  to  great  sufferings.  But  when 
they  saw  the  result  of  their  labors  thev  were  exceedingly  glad 
and  forgot  what  they  had  suffered  and  gave  thanks  to  the  Lord 
of  the  Vineyard. 

And  now  I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  the  outcome  of 
the  missionary  labors  and  the  work  of  evangelization  during 
the  past  51  years. 

1.     Educationally  Turkey  has  advanced  wonderfully. 

Fifty  or  sixty  years  ago  there  was  no  school  among  the 
Armenians  in  Turkey,  save  a  few  monasteries  and  the  websters' 
and  dyers'  shops,  where  but  few  boys  could  find  their  way  to 
obtain  a  very  meagre  knowledge  in  reading  and  writing.     As 


l60  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

to  the  girls,  there  was  not  a  place  of  education  to  be  found  for 
them,  and  so  they  were  absolutely  destitute  of  even  the  first 
rudiments  of  learning.  But  the  missionaries'  labors  of  the 
past  fifty-one  years  have  borne  their  abundant  fruit.  To-day 
we  have  485  common  schools  for  boys  and  girls  among  our  Pro- 
testant brethren.  Five  hundred  young  men  and  women  are 
teaching  in  these  schools.  The  number  of  boys  and  girls  in 
these  schools  is  over  15,000.  We  have  23  boarding  high 
schools  for  boys  and  seventeen  for  girls.  We  have  four  col- 
leges for  boys,  in  Constantinople,  Aintab,  Marsovan  and  Har- 
poot,  in  which  educational  institutions  our  young  men  are 
receiving  the  same  same  degree  of  education  as  young  men  in 
this  country  do  in  the  American  colleges. 

We  have  four  theological  seminaries,  which  supply  preach- 
ers and  pastors  for  our  churches.  In  all  these  educational  in- 
stitutions we  have  some  19,000 — 20,000  scholars  in  all. 

To-day  80  per  cent,  of  all  evangelical  brethren  are  able  to 
read  and  write,  and  owing  to  the  establishment  of  kindergar- 
tens, I  have  no  doubt  the  rate  of  literacy  will  be  90  per  cent, 
before  long. 

The  annual  contribution  of  the  brethren  for  the  work  of 
evangelization  is  $15,000,  which  amount,  being  added  to  the 
allowance  of  the  American  Board,  goes  to  help  to  enlighten 
and  evangelize  Armenians  throughout  Turkey.  All  these 
things,  besides  leaving  their  good  impression  and  effect  upon 
the  other  Christian  churches,  have  also  left  a  wholesome  influ- 
ence over  the  Turkish  part  of  the  population.  The  result  was 
that  in  all  the  hamlets,  villages,  towns  and  cities  throughout 
Turkey  schools  were  established  for  children  of  both  sexes, 
which  spread  light  and  knowledge  everywhere.  Thus  you  see 
Protestants  besides  owning  these  schools  became  the  pioneers 
of  education  to  their  neighbors.  Here  we  want  to  thank  all 
the  missionaries  for  their  untiring  labors  in  this  respect  and  the 
Christian  friends  in  this  country  who  sent  these  missionaries. 

2.     A  wonderful  religious  reformation  is  another  outcome 
of  missionary  labors. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  l6l 

Six  years  before  the  first  evangelical  church  was  estab- 
lished in  Constantinople  a  theological  seminary  was  established 
in  Bebek,  Constantinople,  where  twenty  Armenian  young  men 
were  educated  for  preaching.  These  young  men  were  sent  to 
different  parts  of  Turkey  after  the  establishment  of  the  first 
church.  In  the  year  1846  evangelical  churches  were  established 
in  Nicomedia,  Adabazar  and  Trebizond.  The  persecutions 
were  renewed.  But  the  more  the  persecutions  were  strength- 
ened the  better  the  brethren  were  re-enforced  and  the  more 
zealously  they  worked  to  spread  the  light  of  the  Gospel.  The 
number  of  the  missionaries  was  augmented  from  time  to  time. 
They  were  stationed  in  the  chief  cities  in  the  country.  And 
now  evangelical  churches  were  being  rapidly  organized.  Be- 
sides the  cities  I  have  already  mentioned  Erzeroum,  Bitlis,  Diar- 
bekr,  Harpoot,  Marsovan,  Aintab,  Aleppo,  Marash,  Tarsus, 
Adana,  Kessab,  Killis,  Antioch  and  many  other  cities,  town- 
ships and  villages  had  their  evangelical  churches. 

In  1856  Abdul  Mejid,  the  Sultan  of  Turkey,  under  the 
influence  of  the  missionaries,  issued  an  imperial  edict,  called 
Hatti  Humayoun,  by  which  religious  freedom  was  granted  to 
all  Protestants.  Thus  the  persecutions  began  to  disappear  and 
everybody  was  free  to  follow  the  way  according  to  the  dictation 
of  his  own  conscience. 

To-day  American  Board  has  157  missionaries  in  Turkey, 
which  number  includes  all  the  married,  single,  male  and  female 
missionaries.  These  are  stationed  in  fifteen  different  cities, 
where  they  superintend  the  educational  and  evangelistic  work. 
There  are  no  organized  evangelical  churches,  with  a  church 
membership  of  12,000.  In  these  churches  there  are  seventy- 
four  ordained  ministers,  730  preachers  and  130  assistants.  The 
Gospel  is  preached  at  203  different  places  to  at  least  35,000 
souls  every  week. 

Twenty-two  thousand  men,  women  and  children 
receive  religious  instruction  in  Sunday  Schools  every  Sabbath. 
The  total  number  of  Protestants  throughout  Turkey  is  45,000. 
Their  annual  contribution  for  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  is 


1 62  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

$48,ooo-$50,ooo,  which  is  one-third  of  the  sum  the  Board  spends 
in  Turkey.  We  have  about  thirty  self-supporting-  churches, 
among-  which  the  churches  at  Aintab,  Marash,  Uorfa,  Harpoot, 
Csesarea.  Marsovan,  Adana,  Tarsus  and  Kessab  are  note- 
worthy. We  have  many  devoted,  faithful  and  diligent  native 
Christian  workers. 

Christian  ladies  and  gentlemen,  all  the  labor  you  have 
undertaken,  all  the  money  you  have  spent,  all  the  time  you 
have  devoted  and  all  the  prayers  you  have  offered  at  the  throne 
of  grace  have  not  been  in  vain,  but  they  have  had  their  abundant 
fruit.  You  gave  thousands  and  thousands  of  your  dollars  and 
sent  your  missionaries  to  Turkey.  Great  many  of  them  have 
died  on  the  field  of  labor,  and  caused  you  to  mourn  their  loss. 
But  over  against  these  all  you  have  had  an  abundant  harvest, 
for  which  you  have  our  unending  thanks. 

3.  The  institution  of  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations 
has  been  beneficial  to  our  churches  in  every  way.  Fifteen  or 
twenty  years  ago  our  churches  did  not  know  anything  about 
the  organized  labor  of  young-  Christians.  But  this  important 
phase  of  Christian  work  has  been  introduced  from  this  land  to 
ours,  and  has  created  a  new  enthusiasm  and  activity  in  the 
church. 

During  the  eleven  years  of  my  ministry  from  1869  to  1880 
the  thought  of  how  to  lead  young-  men  to  Christ  greatly  occu- 
pied my  mind.  As  a  result  of  my  thoughts  I  used  to  bring 
together  30  or  40  of  the  young  men  in  my  church  for  prayer 
and  conference,  which  proved  to  be  a  great  help  in  the  spiritual 
growth  of  those  young  men.  As  a  result  of  these  Christian 
labors  in  Marash  we  had  a  glorious  spiritual  awakening,  which 
added  thirty-seven  young  men  to  the  membership  of  the  church. 
T  never  knew  at  the  time  of  the  existance  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  in  this  country,  nor  did  any  other 
preacher  in  Turkey. 

Our  beloved  missionary,  Rev.  G.  F.  Montgomery,  trans- 
lated into  our  language  an  article  on  the  work  of  Young 
Men's  Christian  Associations  in  America.     This  he  showed  me, 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  163 

which  widened  my  knowledge  and  importance  of  the  work.  I 
brought  the  matter  before  my  church  in  Marash,  and  fully  ex- 
plained to  them  the  organization  and  the  work  of  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations.  They  took  to  the  idea  verv  favorably 
and  we  immediately  formed  an  association  composed  of  twenty 
members.  This  was  in  1876.  From  that  day  to  this  many 
similar  associations  have  been  organized  throughout  our 
churches  in  Turkey,  in  cities,  townships  and  villages. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  lines  of  activity  in  which 
the  members  of  these  associations  have  proven  themselves  use- 
ful to  the  community  among  which  they  live.  (1)  Visitation 
of  the  sick.  There  are  almost  no  hospitals  in  Turkey,  and  so  all 
the  poor  patients  of  a  parish  are  left  entirely  upon  the  care  of 
such  young  men  and  such  benevolent  organizations.  In  this 
way  the  young  men  of  the  church  have  rendered  invaluable 
service  to  the  church,  by  visiting  and  comforting  and  providing 
medicine  and  food  for  poor  sick  people.  (2)  Visitation  and 
helping  of  the  poor.  (3)  Finding  out  the  careless  and  cold 
and  backslidden  members  of  the  church  and  bringing  into  the 
church  people  who  would  not  otherwise  go  to  church.  (4) 
Home  missionary  work.  These  young  men  have  sent  teachers 
and  preachers  to  many  villages  within  their  county,  and  in  many 
cases,  where  the  villages  were  near  the  cities,  they  have  them- 
selves visited  and  preached  the  words  of  life  to  the  spiritually 
needy  souls.  (5)  Every  kind  of  humanitarian  and  Christian 
activity  has  been  faithfully  and  efficiently  performed  by  these 
young  men.  All  these  good  works  are  the  result  of  the  devoted 
labors  of  these  organizations  of  young  men,  who  are  the  spirit- 
ual children  of  the  missionaries  you  sent  to  us. 

4.  The  American  missionaries  have  further  helped  in 
the  progress  of  the  Armenians  in  that  they  have  translated  and 
published  the  Bible  and  many  religious  tracts.  That  the  pub- 
lishing of  the  Word  of  God  in  the  vernacular  is  the  chief  means 
of  the  uplifting  of  a  people  is  well  known  to  you. 

When  the  missionaries  first  came  to  Turkey  the  first  thing 
they  noticed  in  regard  to  the  Armenian  church  was  that  the 


164  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

language  of  the  Bible  and  all  the  ceremonies  in  the  church  was 
wholly  different  from  the  language  of  the  common  people. 
Consequently  the  people  were  left  in  utter  darkness  in  regard 
to  their  religious  and  Christian  duties.  Besides  the  language 
of  the  church  being  wholly  unintelligible  to  the  average  people, 
they  did  not  possess  the  Bible  or  its  portions,  and  even  if  one 
was  fortunate  enough  to  possess  one,  he  was  strictly  forbidden 
by  the  priests  to  read  it.  The  result  was  a  general  spiritual 
darkness. 

As  I  have  mentioned  before,  Rev.  W.  Goodell  had  the  Bible 
published  in  the  vernacular  as  early  as  1826.  But  there  was 
soon  felt  a  necessity  of  a  revised  edition  of  the  Bible.  In  this 
the  British  and  American  Bible  Societies  rallied  to  the  assist- 
ance of  the  missionaries.  Their  labors  have  put  the  Bible 
within  the  reach  of  even  the  poorest.  These  societies,  that 
have  published  the  Word  of  God  in  more  than  300  different 
languages,  have  also  translated  and  published  it  in  thirteen 
different  languages  now  spoken  in  Turkey.  These  languages 
are:  Common  Armenian,  Armeno-Turkish  (Turkish  language 
in  Armenian  characters),  Armeno-Kurdish  (Kurdish  language 
in  Armenian  characters),  Arabo-Turkish  (Turkish  language  in 
Arabic  characters,  Persian,  spoken  Chaldee,  modest  Greek, 
Greco-Turkish  (Turkish  language  in  Greek  characters)  and 
Bulgarian.  Although  these  have  greatly  helped  all  the  differ- 
ent nationalities  in  the  Turkish  empire,  but  the  Armenians  have 
been  immeasurably  helped  and  benefited.  The  fruitage  of  the 
missionary  labors  among  the  Armenians  is  the  most  conspicu- 
ous among  the  rest.  Although  the  Armenian  church  at  first 
opposed  the  new  translation  of  the  Bible  and  burned  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  copies,  still  finally  the  Word  found  its  way 
into  almost  every  Armenian  home  and  has  since  done  its  won- 
derful work  in  the  hearts  of  men,  for  it  is  written,  "The  law  of 
the  Lord  is  perfect,  converting  the  soul."  "Thy  word  is  a  lamp 
unto  my  feet  and  a  light  unto  my  path."  "Is  not  my  word  like 
as  a  fire?  saith  the  Lord;  and  like  unto  a  hammer  that  breaketh 
the  rock  in  pieces?"  "The  gospel  of  Christ  is  the  power  of 
God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth." 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  165 

A  few  anecdotes  in  connection  with  the  first  spread  of 
the  Gospel  in  Turkey  are  in  order.  I  can  say  about  myself  that 
I  was  converted  by  the  reading  of  the  Bible. 

In  1852,  when  I  was  seventeen  years  old,  some  strangers 
came  to  my  native  city  of  Alboostan.  After  stopping  at  an 
inn  for  a  few  days  they  left  the  city,  but  left  behind  in  their 
room  four  copies  of  the  Gospel.  The  inn  belonged  to  a  cousin 
of  mine,  so  he  presented  one  of  them  to  me.  I  read  this 
book  stealthily  and  always  kept  it  in  my  pocket,  for  fear  I 
would  be  persecuted  for  reading  it,  and  besides  had  I  read  it 
in  public  it  might  have  been  taken  from  me  and  thrown  into 
the  fire.  For  two  years  I  kept  reading  my  Gospel,  which 
worked  its  inevitable  result  upon  my  heart.  I  was  convicted 
of  my  sinfulness,  repented  of  my  sins  and  found  forgiveness 
to  my  sins  and  peace  to  my  disturbed  soul.  Thus  the  Bible 
is  the  only  means  of  my  conversion  and  the  subsequent  hap- 
piness and  blessings  of  my  life. 

In  1869  I  graduated  from  Marash  Theological  Seminary. 
In  1870  I  was  sent  by  Mr.  Powers,  the  missionary  at  Antioch, 
to  preach  the  Gospel  at  Beilan.  I  moved  there  with  my  family. 
No  Protestant  preacher  had  gone  there  before  and  there 
was  not  a  single  Protestant  in  the  city.  I  labored  there  seven 
months.  First  two  months  of  my  residence  there  people 
would  not  speak  to  me,  nor  have  anything  to  do  with  me.  I 
used  to  take  the  Bible  in  hand  and  go  to  coffee-houses  and 
even  to  liquor  saloons  to  see  if  I  could  find  anybody  to  talk 
with  on  spiritual  matters,  but  was  unsuccessful.  Finally,  one 
day  when  I  was  going  on  the  streets,  a  venerable  old  man,  by 
the  name  of  Tiros  Agha,  called  out  to  me  by  my  name  to  his 
store  and  said  to  me  he  would  be  glad  if  I  called  at  his  house 
once  in  a  while.  Upon  inquiry  I  found  out  the  old  gentleman 
possessed  a  copy  of  the  Gospel,  several  copies  of  religious 
works  and  a  copy  of  Young's  Nights.  He  told  me  that  many 
people  came  to  his  house  almost  every  night  and  that  if  I 
called  at  his  house  sometimes  and  explained  the  truth  to  them 
he  would  be  greatly  obliged.     This  was  what  I  was  anxiously 


1 66  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

looking  for,  and  beginning  with  that  day  I  kept  going  to  his 
house  and  expounding  the  word  for  three  or  four  hours  to  a 
very  attentive  and  inquiring  gathering.  For  five  months  I 
continued  this  Bible  Class  work  in  that  dear  old  man's  house. 
He  himself,  already  a  good  man.  was  wholly  converted,  and 
through  him  many  people  accepted  Jesus  Christ  as  their  Sa- 
viour, until  at  the  present  time  Beilan  has  an  evangelical  church 
with  about  300  members.  Thus  T  have  seen  the  power  of  the 
Gospel  upon  myself  and  upon  many  others  like  myself.  We 
Protestant  Armenians  never  forget  the  unselfish  and  untiring 
devotion  of  Father  Goodell  in  his  great  work  of  translating 
and  publishing  the  Bible  in  our  spoken  language,  who,  like 
John  in  the  Isle  of  Patmos,  wTas  confined  on  the  island  of  Malta 
for  three  years  and  later  ten  years  in  Constantinople  that  he 
might  bring  the  word  of  truth  within  the  reach  of  all.  His  edi- 
tion and  translation  of  the  Bible  is  held  with  great  reverence 
in  many  an  Armenian  home,  and  I  am  proud  to  own  a  copy 
for  my  home  use.  Besides  the  thousands  and  thousands  of 
copies  of  the  Scriptures,  8,000,000  pages  of  religious  tracts  in 
twelve  different  languages  are  being  yearly  published  by  the 
missionaries.  And  so  in  the  foregoing  lines  of  Christian  ac- 
tivity the  work  of  the  American  missionaries  has  been  very 
important  for  the  Armenian  nation. 

BY  JUDSON  SMITH,  D.  D., 

Secretary  of  the  American  Board. 

The  first  notice  of  an  intended  mission  within  the  limits 
of  the  Turkish  Empire  appears  in  the  Annual  Report  of  the 
Board  for  1819,  nine  years  after  the  Board  was  organized. 
Missionaries  of  the  Board  were  already  at  work  in  India  and 
among  the  aboriginal  tribes  of  America,  and  a  mission  to  the 
Sandwich  Islands  was  under  contemplation.  In  this  report 
the  committee  dwell  upon  the  reasons  for  a  special  interest 
on  the  part  of  the  Christian  people  in  the  re-establishment  of 
pure  Christianity  in  the  historic  regions  honored  by  the  earthly 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  167 

life  of  our  Lord  and  traversed  by  his  first  disciples.  Palestine 
was  the  region  specially  in  mind,  but  the  committee  recognized 
the  fact  that  the  occupancy  of  a  much  wider  field  was  included 
in  the  beginning  of  missionary  work  in  Jerusalem,  and  the 
writer  of  this  first  report  referred  to  "Smyrna,  the  provinces  of 
Asia  Minor,  Armenia,  Georgia  and  Persia,  Mohammedan 
countries,  in  which,  though  there  are  many  Jews  and  Christians, 
there  is  still  a  deplorable  lack  of  Christian  knowledge  and  of 
Christian  life."  Before  this  year  had  ended,  the  Rev.  Levi 
Parsons  and  the  Rev.  Pliny  Fisk  were  set  apart  to  establish 
a  mission  at  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  following  year  entered  upon 
their  labors,  touching  at  Malta  and  taking  up  their  residence 
at  Smyrna  for  a  time  before  they  reached  their  destined  field. 
From  these  labors,  by  a  process  of  natural  development,  mis- 
sionary work  at  first  intended  for  Palestine,  afterward  set  up  in 
the  Island  of  Malta  and  in  Athens,  came  to  take  a  firm  and 
lasting  hold  upon  the  Turkish  Empire. 

In  1831  work  was  opened  at  Constantinople  by  Dr.  Good- 
ell,  reenforced  by  Dr.Dwight  in  the  following  year,  and  thence 
gradually  it  was  extended  to  Smyrna,  Brusa,  Trebizond,  Erzum, 
Aintab,  and  so  on  throughout  the  entire  district  of  Asiatic  Turkey. 
The  aim  in  the  establishment  of  the  original  mission  in  Pales- 
tine and  in  these  later  stages  of  missionary  work  in  Turkey, 
had  respect  to  the  entire  population  of  the  Empire;  and  this 
aim  has  never  for  a  moment  been  abandoned  or  lost  sight  of, 
and  remains  to-day  an  unfulfilled  but  inspiring  purpose.  Actual 
missionary  work,  however,  was  restricted  by  the  laws  of  the 
Empire  to  the  Christian  populations,  chiefly  the  Armenians 
and  the  Greeks  and  to  the  Jews,  and  this  has  been  the  charac- 
teristic feature  of  the  work  of  the  Board  in  the  Turkish  Empire. 
An  ancient  but  corrupted  form  of  Christianity  it  has  been 
sought  to  purify  and  bring  back  to  a  true  acquaintance  with 
the  Gospels,  a  living  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  a  life 
molded  in  its  spirit  and  aims  by  the  Scriptures  and  by  Him  of 
whom  they  testify.  It  was  not  the  intention  of  the  missionaries 
to  establish  a  separate  Protestant  community,  but  to  assist,  if 


1 68  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

possible,  in  a  movement  that  should  result  in  the  reformation 
of  the  existing  churches.  The  excommunication  of  the  evan- 
gelicals from  their  own  church  and  community  by  the  Arme- 
nian Patriarch  of  Constantinople  changed  their  plans  and  made 
necessary  the  organization  of  Protestant  churches  and  of  a 
Protestant  community,  which  were  at  once  formally  recognized 
by  the  Turkish  Government.  This  action  took  place  in  1847 
and  introduced  a  change  in  the  methods  of  missionary  work 
but  not  a  change  of  aim.  It  is  a  most  happy  circumstance  of 
these  later  days,  that  the  reformation  of  the  Gregorian  churches 
which  was  making  such  progress  prior  to  the  separation  has 
reappeared,  that  these  churches  have  in  many  instances  come 
into  most  friendly  relations  to  the  neighboring  Protestant 
churches,  the  true  evangelical  spirit  has  manifested  itself  with 
cheering  results  among  the  priests  and  people,  and  the  original 
hope  of  the  mission  has  begun  to  be  realized  on  a  wide  scale 
in  many  parts  of  the  Empire. 

Originally  the  entire  field  of  Turkey  was  regarded  as  one 
mission  with  its  centre  at  Constantinople;  but  the  practical 
difficulties  of  holding  a  yearly  meeting  of  the  mission  at  any 
one  point,  with  other  considerations,  led  to  the  division  of  the 
Empire  into  the  four  fields  of  the  present  time — the  Western 
Turkey  mission,  embracing  territorially  the  larger  part,  includ- 
ing as  its  stations  Constantinople,  Nicomedia,  Brusa,  Smyrna, 
Marsovan,  Cesarea,  Sivas  and  Trebizond;  the  Central  Turkey 
mission,  lying  to  the  south  of  the  Taurus  Mountains,  and  to 
the  west  of  the  Euphrates  Valley,  with  its  two  principal  stations 
at  Aintab  and  Marash ;  the  Eastern  Turkey  mission,  including 
what  lies  between  these  two  fields  and  the  Russian  and  Persian 
borders,  having  for  its  stations  Erzrum,  Harpoot,Mardin,Bitlis 
and  Van ;  and  the  mission  in  European  Turkey,  of  later  origin, 
chiefly  among  Bulgarians,  with  its  stations  at  Monastir,  Philip- 
popolis,  Samokov  and  Salonica.  From  the  beginning,  work  in 
behalf  of  the  Greek  Christians,  found  in  certain  parts  of  the 
Turkish  Empire  in  considerable  numbers,  has  constituted  an 
integral  and  very  interesting  part  of  the  whole  enterprise,  but 
has  never  constituted  a  distinct  mission. 


AND    THE    ARMENIANS.  169 

The  languages  employed  in  missionary  work  have  been 
the  Armenian,  the  Greek,  the  Turkish,  the  Bulgarian  and  in 
certain  portions  of  the  Central  Turkey  mission  and  of  the  East- 
ern Turkey  mission  the  Arabic.  The  Bible  translated  into  these 
languages,  has  been  widely  distributed,  many  text-books  for 
school  use  have  been  provided,  and  a  somewhat  extended  vol- 
ume of  Christian  literature  has  been  made  available  for  the 
people  by  the  efforts  of  the  missionaries.  The  Bible  House  at 
Constantinople,  one  of  the  great  centers  of  missionary  activity 
and  a  right  arm  of  the  missionary  work,  sends  out  through  all  the 
Empire  annually  many  millions  of  pages  of  the  Scriptures  and 
of  other  literature  for  the  instruction  and  edification  of  the 
Christian  people,  as  well  as  text-books  for  the  mission  schools. 

The  direct  Christian  work  in  these  missions  in  Turkey  has 
been  most  energetic,  widespread  and  effectual,  and  many  self- 
supporting,  evangelical  churches  are  found  in  the  great  centers 
in  each  of  the  missions.  Education  has  been  a  marked  feature 
of  the  work  in  these  missions  almost  from  the  beginning,  and 
nowhere  else  in  the  fields  occupied  by  the  Board  have  we  to-day 
so  many  institutions  of  a  high  grade,  so  fully  attended.  Ana- 
tolia College  at  Marsovan,  Central  Turkey  College  at  Aintab, 
and  the  Institute  of  Samokov,  for  men  alone,  the  American 
College  for  girls  at  Scutari,  and  the  Central  Turkey  Female 
College  at  Marash,  for  women  alone,  and  Euphrates  College 
at  Harpoot,  for  both  men  and  women,  are  all  institutions  doing 
a  work  of  true  college  grade  adjusted  to  the  special  conditions 
found  in  the  Turkish  Empire.  Robert  College  on  the  Bospo- 
rus, though  entirely  independent  of  the  missions,  is  a  striking 
result  of  missionary  labors  and  strongly  re-enforces  missionary 
influence.  These  colleges  are  re-enforced  by  twenty-six  high 
schools  for  boys,  nineteen  boarding  schools  for  girls,  all  thor- 
oughly manned  and  attended  by  about  2,000  students,  and 
by  350  common  schools,  with  more  than  16,000  pupils.  At  the 
head  of  all  stand  the  five  theological  schools,  in  which  men 
are  trained  directly  for  the  native  pastorate.  It  will  suggest 
the  breadth  and  fruitfulness  of  the  work  if  attention  is  called 


170  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

to  the  125  churches  now  in  these  missions,  with  12,787  mem- 
bers with  100  native  pastors,  128  other  preachers  and  a  total 
force  of  native  laborers  numbering  778.  It  is  further  evidence 
of  the  quality  of  these  churches  that  last  year  they  contributed 
for  all  purposes  but  little  short  of  $68,000. 

A  work  having  the  same  origin  with  these  missions,  con- 
ducted by  the  Board  for  many  years,  achieving  a  like  success, 
and  now  in  the  care  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  New  York, 
is  in  progress  in  Syria,  having  its  great  educational  center  at 
Beirut.  The  Reformed  Presbyterian  Church  of  America  sus- 
tains a  small  but  successful  medical  and  educational  work  at 
Mersin  in  Asia  Minor.  Work  in  behalf  of  the  Jews  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  Empire,  at  first  included  in  the  missions  of  the 
Board,  is  now  in  the  care  of  missionaries  from  Great  Britain; 
there  is  also  an  interesting  work  supported  by  the  Society  of 
Friends  in  this  country  carried  on  in  different  parts  of  Pales- 
tine. But,  providentially,  the  great  bulk  of  the  missionary 
work  in  the  Turkish  Empire  has  devolved  upon  the  American 
Board,  and  has  at  length  reached  nearly  every  principal  city 
and  village  in  European  Turkey  and  in  the  territory  from  the 
Dardanelles  and  the  Mediterranean  eastward  to  the  Russian 
border,  and  from  the  Black  Sea  southward  to  Syria  and  Arabia. 

At  no  time  has  the  work  of  the  Board  in  Asiatic  Turkey 
been  in  better  condition  or  presented  greater  promise  than 
within  the  last  year.  And  it  is  upon  the  Armenian  people, 
among  whom  this  work  has  been  so  largely  carried  on,  that 
a  wild  storm  of  massacre  and  pillage  has  fallen,  sweeping  the 
country  from  Trebizond  southward  into  the  valley  of  the 
Euphrates,  westward  to  Marsovan  and  Cesarea  and  out  to  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  covering  the  entire  territory  of  the  eastern 
and  central  missions  and  those  parts  of  the  Western  Turkey 
mission  that  are  adjacent.  Thousands  have  been  foully  mur- 
dered, chiefly  the  leading  business  men,  and  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  those  dependent  on  them  have  been  left  utterly 
destitute;  many  a  Protestant  pastor  and  teacher  has  fallen 
in  loyalty  to  his  faith,  and  mission  chapels   and  schools  in 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  I7I 

great  numbers  have  been  burned  to  the  ground.  The  stations 
where  educational  work  centered  have  been  especially  assailed, 
and  at  Harput  and  to  some  degree  at  Marash,  the  plant  has 
been  well-nigh  swept  out  of  existence,  and  the  missionaries 
themselves  exposed  to  deadly  peril.  Sympathy  for  the  people, 
so  broken  and  bleeding,  is  almost  as  widespread  as  Christianity 
and  civilization,  and  generous  gifts  for  their  relief  are  steadily 
flowing  to  Constantinople.  There  is  an  additional  reason  why, 
for  the  American  people,  a  peculiar  interest  should  attach  to 
the  present  situation  in  Turkey.  Upon  the  uplifting  and  enlight- 
enment of  a  noble  portion  of  the  people  in  the  Turkish  Empire 
American  citizens  have  already  expended  more  than  $6,000,- 
000,  have  established  there  a  mission  plant  worth  to-day 
$1,500,000,  are  annually  devoting  to  the  further  development 
of  this  work  a  sum  exceeding  $150,000,  and  have  there  as 
their  representatives,  distributed  in  small  groups  over  the 
whole  Empire,  a  band  of  152  men  and  women,  among  the 
noblest  and  the  best  that  our  Christian  homes  and  schools  can 
produce.  The  bearing  of  these  men  and  women  in  the  midst 
of  the  terrible  scenes  of  the  last  four  months,  their  calmness 
when  the  people  were  filled  with  dread  in  view  of  the  approach- 
ing scourge,  their  courage  when  death  was  all  around  them 
and  even  when  it  stared  them  in  the  face,  their  faith  that  out  of 
all  this  tumult  and  distress  will  come  the  enlargement  of 
God's  kingdom  in  this  land,  their  steadfast  purpose  to  remain 
at  their  posts  and  share  the  troubles  of  their  people  and  min- 
ister to  their  wants,  proof  against  the  natural  shrinking  of 
their  own  hearts,  against  the  pleading  of  friends  at  home, 
against  the  persuasions  even  of  those  to  whom  they  must 
look  for  protection — these  things  have  won  for  them  the  meed 
of  universal  praise.  The  name  missionary  has  gained  a  new 
definition  by  deeds  like  these,  and  instead  of  a  term  of  re- 
proach or  ridicule,  it  has  become  almost  a  synonym  of  hero 
and  heroine.  And  all  this  noble  conduct  has  filled  the  Arme- 
nian nation  with  boundless  love  and  gratitude,  and  has  bound 
their  hearts  to  the  missionaries  with  hooks  of  steel.     Hence- 


172  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

forth  this  whole  nation  will  be  like  wax  in  the  hands  of  these 
their  protectors  and  benefactors  and  personal  friends.  And 
even  beyond  the  Armenian  people,  many  and  many  of  the 
Moslems  are  noting  this  high  proof  of  the  Christian  faith,  and 
are  enshrining  in  their  hearts'  admiring  love  the  names  we 
cherish,  and  longing  for  a  share  of  their  faith. 

But  it  is  as  teachers  and  exemplars  of  the  Christian  faith 
and  life,  not  as  political  deliverers,  that  they  have  won  their 
place;  no  political  aim  has  ever  been  allowed  to  enter  into 
this  widespread  and  most  effective  Christian  labor;  and  the 
missionary  operations  of  the  Board  stand  clear  of  all  respon- 
sibility for  the  grave  political  disturbances  which  threaten 
the  stability  of  the  Empire.  They  have  been  loyal  to  the  ex- 
isting Government  and  have  inculcated  this  duty  upon  their 
pupils;  they  have  sought  to  make  better  men  and  better  citi- 
zens of  all  those  with  whom  they  have  had  to  do ;  and  no  truer 
friends  of  the  Turkish  Empire  and  of  all  its  people  than  the 
American  missionaries  have  lived  within  its  borders  these 
seventy  years  past.  For  the  protection  of  themselves  and  of 
their  legitimate  enterprise  within  that  territory  guaranteed 
by  treaty  rights,  and  numerous  precedents,  and  long  con- 
tinued usage,  we  may  justly  claim  the  utmost  exertions  of 
our  own  Government  and  the  friendly  regard  of  all  mankind. 
It  cannot  be  that  upon  this  work,  to  which  so  many  precious 
lives  have  been  given,  on  which  such  treasures  have  been  ex- 
pended, on  the  successful  maintenance  of  which  such  vast 
interests  depend,  ruin  hopeless  and  universal  is  now  to  fall. 
May  we  not  rather  cherish  the  hope  that  this  storm  is  for 
cleansing  and  purifying  and  shall  endure  but  for  a  night, 
and  that  a  day  of  brightness  and  glory  is  soon  to  dawn  upon 
this  great  Empire. 

Boston,  Mass. 

But  alas!  the  result  of  their  labor  has  been  ruthlessly 
dealt  with  by  the  cruel  Turks  at  the  late  massacres,  4,000  or 
5,000  Protestants  alone  have  been  butchered,  their  personal 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  1 73 

property  have  been  plundered  and  several  thousands  have 
taken  refuge  in  the  United  States.  I  am  one  of  of  those  suf- 
fering refugees,  who  with  members  of  my  family  am  in  great 
difficulty.  To-day  there  are  in  the  United  States  more  than 
200  graduates  of  the  American  colleges  in  Turkey.  Some  of 
them  are  at  work  with  various  occupations,  but  the  majority 
of  them  have  no  work  to  do.  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  these 
are  the  children  of  your  missionaries.  What  are  you  going 
to  do  about  them?  They  are  now  returned  to  you  for  help. 
If  the  Congregational  Church  does  not  take  care  of  them, 
what  denomination  will.  All  the  evangelical  Armenians  in 
this  country  are  your  foster  children.  Your  missionaries, 
your  prayers  and  your  money  brought  them  up.  If  you  do 
not  take  care  of  them,  I  am  afraid  others  will  carry  them  off. 
But  I  myself  cannot  consent  to  it.  After  receiving  so  much 
blessing  from  them  how  can  I  turn  against  them  and  be  un- 
grateful to  them.  For  all  we  are  to-day  we  owe  to  the  Con- 
gregational Churches  in  this  country. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  LAST  HORRORS  OF  THE  ARMENIANS  IN  TURKEY. 

The  events  which  have  happened  in  Turkey  during  the 
last  twenty  years  have  drawn  the  special  attention  of  the 
nations  and  governments  of  the  whole  of  Europe,  and  have 
employed  not  only  the  skill  of  the  diplomatists,  but  the  pens 
of  journalists  every  morning,  and  the  evening  newspapers 
have  been  examined  for  the  purpose  of  learning  the  civilization 
or  reformation  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

The  principal  point  considered  in  this  contest  has  hitherto 
been  the  political,  but  people  have  entirely  lost  sight  of  its 
religion  and  moral  aspects;  still  the  oppressions  and  persecu- 
tion of  Christians  can  never  be  fully  understood  by  those  who 
may  be  born  in  a  free  land  like  you  are,  where  there  are  no 
Turks,  Kurds,  Circassians,  Georgians,  Zaibacks  and  no  Mo- 
hammedanism with  its  oppressions  and  persecutions  to  the 
Christians. 

Therefore  I  propose  to  consider  the  religion  and  political 
causes  that  have  ruined  the  population  of  Turkey  entirely. 

But  the  questions  arise,  Why  the  Sultan  orders  (during 
the  last  few  years)  the  Turks,  Kurds,  or  other  followers  to 
destroy  the  Christians,  whereby  more  than  one  hundred  thou- 
sand (100,000)  of  them  have  recently  been  killed  and  five  hun- 
dred thousand  have  been  rendered  homeless  and  left  to  die 
of  starvation  among  the  streets  and  out  in  the  mountains? 
and  again  why  the  Sultan  ordered  all  who  are  willing  to  ac- 
cept the  Mohammedanism  that  have  never  been  referred  to 
with  any  sort  of  correctness  by  the  newspapers  or  periodicals 
in  their  accounts  of  the  dreadful  oppressions  taking  place  in 
Armenia,  or  all  over  Asia  Minor? 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  175 

I.  The  first  cause  of  the  horrors  to  the  Armenians  of 
Turkey  is  that  chiefly  of  the  Mohammedan  religion. 

Though  the  Islamism  or  Mohammedan  religion  is  di- 
vided into  a  great  many  sects,  but  the  moral  precepts  and  laws 
of  all  are  based  upon  the  book  of  Koran.  The  book  of 
Koran  is  not  an  apt  instrument  to  keep  pure  the  moral 
character  of  the  population  of  the  Turks;  on  the  other  hand 
it  causes  the  opportunity  for  the  greater  corruption  in  moral 
respects,  with  that  it  nourishes  in  its  followers  a  spirit  of  im- 
proving animosity  and  opposition  to  non-Mohammedan 
races  and  nationalities. 

The  following  facts  are  the  most  interesting  points  which 
have  attracted  my  attention  : 

A.  The  book  of  Koran  teaches  that  the  sinner  having 
once  performed  his  ablution  and  said  his  prayers,  his  sins 
should  be  forgiven.  Ablution  means  that  a  man  goes  to  a 
fountain  of  running  water  or  takes  some  water  from  a  jug  and 
washes  his  head,  ears,  mouth,  arms  and  feet,  regarding  that 
those  sins  were  committed  by  those  members  and  are  washed 
away. 

But  a  dying  person  who  is  unable  to  perform  above  re- 
ligious duties  can  have  the  same  forgiveness  by  raising  his 
forefinger  and  with  it  confess  that  there  is  one  God,  and 
Mohammed  is  the  true  prophet;  even  then  if  the  person  is 
unable  to  do  so  he  need  only  repeat  the  above  confession  in 
his  mind,  whose  sins,  having  been  instantly  wiped  away,  he  is 
made  as  white  as  snow. 

B.  The  book  of  Koran,  moreover,  teaches  that  all  Moham- 
medan people  shall  go  to  the  seventh  heaven  any  way,  where 
all  the  sensual  indulgences  known  on  earth  will  await  them; 
even  others  of  a  more  degrading  and  bestial  character.  The 
language  with  which  these  ideas  are  clothed  is  so  indelicate 
that  it  can  hardly  bear  repeating  in  society. 

Nobody  who  has  not  lived  in  Turkey  can  realize  how 
hopeless,  almost  self-contradicting,  it  is  to  talk  of  "reforming" 
Turkey.    It  could  not  be  reformed  and  be  Mohammedan  Tur- 


176  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

key.  The  lack  of  reform  or  power  of  reform  is  just  what 
makes  it  what  it  is.  The  root  of  evil  is  Mohammedanism 
itself;  it  is  embodied  social  stagnation,  corruption,  ultimate 
ruin.  Neither  the  Sultan  nor  the  Turks  can  improve  the  state 
of  the  Empire,  even  if  they  wished.  The  usual  "broad- 
minded"  statements  about  Mohammed  and  his  religion  are 
simply  elaborations  of  ignorance,  made  up  out  of  men's 
own  minds,  and  what  they  think  must  be  true.  It  is  customary 
for  writers  to  talk  in  this  fashion.  Mohammedanism  is  a  half- 
way house  to  Christianity.  Mohammed  converted  the  heathen 
Arabs  to  a  belief  in  the  true  God.  Mohammed  established  a 
great  religion  and  a  great  empire,  etc.,  etc.  There  is  no  truth 
in  this,  for  all  its  plausible  sound.  Mohammedanism  is  not 
even  on  the  road  to  Christianity;  and  Arabia,  Asia  Minor,  and 
Palestine  were  all  much  better  off  before  the  Mohammedan 
conquest  than  after  it.  Buddhism  and  Brahmanism  are  bet- 
ter religions  than  Mohammedanism.  The  Chinese,  the  Japan- 
ese, the  people  of  India  are  much  more  religious  that  the 
Turks.  The  Chinese  Emperor  and  the  Japanese  Mikado  are 
far  better  men  than  the  Mohammedan  Sultan.  The  heathen 
religions  rear  better  men  than  Mohammedanism.  The  Mon- 
gols are  more  humane  and  sympathetic  than  the  Turks. 
Heathenism  at  its  worst,  though  a  low  form  of  religion,  is  really 
a  form  of  religion;  but  Mohammedanism  is  not  a  religion 
at  all. 

Then  what  is  it?  It  is  a  system  of  imposture  and  false 
pretense,  and  of  lives  of  human  lust  and  cruelty.  Mohammed 
practiced  all  this,  and  his  successors  have  done  the  same  and 
taught  the  same  ever  since;  and  the  system  means  just  that 
now,  and  nothing  else.  There  is  neither  love  nor  sympathy, 
manliness  nor  humanity  in  Mohammedanism.  Can  a  sys- 
tem lacking  all  these  be  considered  a  religion?  This  is  the 
substance  of  Mohammed's  teaching:  "Love  your  fellow  be- 
lievers, hate  and  slay  all  who  refuse  to  accept  your  religion. 
Marry  as  many  wives  as  you  can  afford ;  if  you  can  afford  but 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  177 

one,  do  not  repine,  for  you  shall  have  seven  thousand  to  enjoy 
in  Paradise." 

The     Mohammedan     religion    teaches    that    every    be- 
liever  after   having-   died   in    that   faith    will   be   married   to 
seventy  thousand  virgins  in  Paradise,  so  as  they  can  enjoy  all 
the  happiness  in  gratifying  the  desires  of  flesh.     In  the  book  of 
Koran  the  picture  of  Paradise  is  drawn  as  such  that  all  forms 
of  pleasure  and  happiness  as  expected  to  be  the  outcome  of 
jealousy  and  selfishness  is  to  be  found  there,  also  not  one 
faithful  or  one  who  believes  in  one  God  and  confess  Moham- 
med a  true  prophet  of  God,  and  those  who  bring  Selavat  will 
under  any  circumstances  go  to  Hell,  but  will  undoubtedly  go 
to  the  Paradise  as  described  in  the  book  of  Koran.     If  you 
conquer  a  country,  show  no  mercy  to  the  people  unless  they 
embrace  Islam.    If  they  refuse,  either  kill  them  or  make  slaves 
of  them.    What  sort  of  reformers  can  you  expect  in  Turkey, 
when  the  very  religion  that  is  to  make  people  better  incul- 
cates such  principles.     If  one  does  not  know  a  language  he 
cannot  speak  it:  if  he  has  not  a  principle  he  will  not  practice 
it.    How  can  the  Sultan,  a  vicious  man  to  begin  with,  trained 
in  a  religion  calculated  to  make  a  cruel  and  licentious  ani- 
mal even  out  of  a  decent  man,  reform  anything?     His  very 
religion  forbids  it;  he  cares  nothing  for  the  religion  when  it 
stands  in  his  way,  but  he  will  follow  its  injunction  to  please 
the  Mohammedans,  especially  when  they  gratify  and  justify 
his  worst  passions.    I  shall  be  asked  if  the  Mohammedans  do 
not  believe  in  one  God,  and  the  same  God  as  the  Christian, 
and  if  that  does  not  make  it  a  religion,  and  very  near  that 
of  Christian.     Yes,  they  do;  and  so  do  the  devils.     That  is 
what  Mohammedanism  is — the  religion  of  devils.     Most  of 
the  Turkish  conversation  consists  of  oaths  and  smut.     I  do 
not  mean  among  the  common  people — theirs  is  nothing  else 
— but  of  the  educated  upper  classes,  their  scholars,  teachers, 
governors,  and   priests.      I  came  in   contact  with  them  for 
years,  and  I  hated  to  listen  to  them,  their  talk  was  so  full  of 
cursing  and  filth.    You  never  see  the  fruits  of  the  spirit  in 


1^8  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

them;  only  the  fruits  of  the  flesh.  They  do  not  understand 
what  spiritual  life  is;  with  them  all  is  sense — eating  and  drink- 
ing, finery  and  Inst — lust  above  all,  everywhere  and  always — 
like  cattle.  They  seem  never  able  to  forget  sex  and  its  uses. 
The  whole  Mohammedan  system  is  designed  to  make  the 
gratification  of  lust  as  easy  and  plentiful  as  possible  short  of 
a  promiscuity  that  would  lead  to  civil  anarchy.  A  Moham- 
medan can  divorce  his  wife  any  time,  no  matter  how  many 
children  she  or  he  has.  He  does  not  much  care  for  his  chil- 
dren :  only  he  pleases  by  paying  back  her  dower,  and  marry 
another  to  do  likewise:  every  week,  or  day,  if  he  sees  fit, 
he  can  re-marry  and  re-divorce  the  first  one  as  often  as  he 
pleases.  Tt  is  like  trading  horses;  as  little  sentiment  or  moral- 
ity in  one  as  the  other,  the  slightest  possible  regulation  of 
sheer  animal  desire. 

There  is,  however,  one  form  of  divorce  which  is  com- 
plete, and  does  not  allow  of  re-marriage  until  another  mar- 
riage has  intervened;  that  is  called  the  ieuchden  docuza  (mean- 
ing from  three  to  nine  divorce,  from  the  terms  the  husband 
uses  in  doing  it.  He  says  to  her,  "I  divorce  you  three  to 
nine."  Nobody  knows  what  it  means  or  meant.  After  this, 
if  he  wants  his  wife  back,  he  must  get  somebody  else  to  marry 
with  her,  and  then  he  divorce  her  .regularly;  and  as  this  is 
perilous,  because  the  second  husband  after  marrying  her 
may  take  a  notion  to  keep  her,  or  any  way  keep  her  much 
longer  that  the  first  one  relishes,  or  demand  a  large  sum  of 
money,  the  usual  plan  is  to  fix  a  very  poor  man,  or  a  blind 
beggar  (preferably  blind,  so  that  he  canot  see  the  wife,  and 
be  so  charmed  by  her  beauties  that  he  will  wish  to  keep  her) ; 
get  him  to  become  the  woman's  husband  for  a  few  days,  and 
then  pay  him  something  to  divorce  her,  then  the  first  can 
marry  her  again  if  he  chooses.  There  are  many  more  speci- 
mens of  Mohammedan  "purity"  too  shameful  to  write,  and 
too  shameful  to  read.  I  cannot  soil  the  paper  with  them. 
But  I  must  mention  one  more  engine  of  corruption  which  lies 
at  the  very  root  of  Mohammedanism  itself,  the  pilgrimage  to 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  179 

Mecca,  to  the  birthplace  of  Mohammed  in  Arabia.  Once 
a  year  Mohammedan  pilgrims  from  every  -  quarter  of  the 
world  go  to  Mecca  to  pay  homage  to  their  beloved  prophet, 
averaging  200,000  to  500,000  a  year.  It  is  their  duty  to  sacri- 
fice. This  is  done  on  the  hills  which  surround  the  great  tem- 
ple, the  greatest  mosque  in  the  world.  It  is  a  square  building, 
which  covers  several  acres  of  land.  Just  in  the  cluster  is 
the  Holy  Well,  called  Zamzem.  Mohammedans  believe  that  if 
they  drink  of  that  water,  hell  fire  cannot  burn  them,  and 
every  pilgrim  does  so.  Then  they  begin  to  die  from  cholera 
to  the  tune  of  fifty  thousand  a  year  or  so,  for  the  well  is  a  mere 
cesspool.  You  see,  after  cutting  the  throats  of  the  animals, 
they  leave  the  filth  and  blood  just  as  they  are,  for  the  Mo- 
hammedan religion  does  not  allow  the  sacrifice  to  be  touched. 
The  sandy  soil  absorbs  this  putrid  filth,  which  leaks  into  the 
well.  But  it  is  a  great  merit  to  die  on  the  spot  where  Mo- 
hammed was  born;  one  goes  straight  to  heaven  if  he  does. 
That  is  not  the  worst,  however;  they  fill  bottles  with  that 
water  and  carry  it  to  their  families  and  friends  throughout 
the  Turkish  Empire,  Persia  and  India,  from  which  cholera 
is  spread  abroad  over  the  world. 

The  pilgrims  do  not  take  their  wives  as  far  as  the  birth- 
place of  Mohammed,  but  leave  them  half  way,  and  on  reach- 
ing Mecca  they  marry  temporarily.  About  20,000  prosti- 
tutes there  make  a  business  of  being  short-term  wives  of  the 
pilgrims,  getting  $5  to  $25  from  each,  and  being  his  wife 
for  anywhere  from  a  day  to  a  fortnight,,  so  that  each  woman 
marries  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  pilgrims  a  year.  This  is  not 
prostitution;  it  is  religion — and  Mohammedan  "purity." 
Mecca  is  considered  the  most  holy  spot  on  earth  by  Moham- 
medans; but  it  is  the  most  corrupt  spot;  it  is  a  hell,  and  the 
Mohammedan  Paradise  is  worse  than  Mecca. 

The  Mohammedan  religion  sets  strict  rules  prohibiting 
the  true  freedom  to  female  sex.  While  requiring  them  to 
perform  all  the  other  religious  duties  in  mosques  where  men 
worship,  there  will  not  be  one  woman  among  them.    As  ex- 


l8o  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

ception  to  this  rule  one  might  see  an  old  woman,  and  that 
to  be  over  sixty  years  of  age.  Usually  the  female  sex  are 
expected  to  perform  their  religious  duties  and  do  the  act  of 
worshipping  in  the  house. 

Although  the  book  of  Koran  accepts  the  object  in 
the  formation  of  families  (of  family)  to  the  generation  of  hu- 
manity, yet  that  pure  object  is  ignored  only  through  their 
passion;  they  distinguish  the  difference  between  the  unlawful 
from  lawful  in  this  manner,  that  without  ever  having  seen 
each  other,  though  the  declaration  of  a  few  representative  wit- 
nesses of  the  parties  to  be  married  that  the  marriage  ceremo- 
nies are  performed.  It  has  taught  that  the  wife  of  a  married 
man  should  not  be  seen  by  any  other  man;  therefore  each 
Mohammedan  woman  is  kept  under  the  rules  of  namehram; 
that  is  to  say,  the  wife  of  a  married  man  should  not  be  seen 
by  any  other  men,  and  if  any  man  come  to  the  house  or  the 
wife  has  to  go  out  of  the  house,  her  head,  face  and  the  entire 
body  should  be  covered,  and  if  it  should  be  seen  or  under- 
stood that  she  has  disobeyed  this  rule,  is  lawfully  considered 
divorced  on  the  ground  that  she  has  been  unfaithful  to  her 
husband.  Young  girls  also  should  not  be  seen  by  a  man  nor 
should  they  talk  to  a  man. 

A  married  man  enjoys  privileges  to  such  an  extent  that 
he  has  full  right  to  divorce  a  wife  without  any  reason  or  ex- 
cuse, even  though  he  may  have  many  children  by  that  wife, 
and  can  marry  any  other  woman  he  may  wish.  A  Moham- 
medan has  the  right  to  marry  three  more  wives  while  he  is  mar- 
ried and  living  with  the  first  wife. 

Mohammedan  women  are  not  allowed  the  true  liberty, 
and  they  must  be  kept  under  the  ruling  of  the  hand.  They 
are  treated  like  slaves;  consequently,  wishes  a  Mohammedan 
husband  can  respect  or  show  objection  or  trust  his  wife,  nor 
his  wife  can  think  the  house  in  which  she  lives  is  her  own  nor 
assured  that  she  is  to  live  with  this  husband  until  death;  thus 
there  is  on  true  family  can  be  found  among  are  supppressed. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  l8l 

It  is  better  for  a  Mohammedan  girl  to  be  sold  like  a 
slave  rather  than  to  be  the  wife  of  a  Mohammedan  man. 

This  is  one  of  the  principal  teachings  of  the  book  of 
Koran.  There  are  other  similar  teachings  of  this  book  that 
deprive  the  female  sex  of  their  rights  and  liberty  by  the  few 
examples  here  given  of  the  true  nature  of  Mohammedanism. 

In  one  word,  Mohammedans  have  no  right  to  exist, 
politically,  socially,  or  religiously.  In  the  first  they  have 
wrought  nothing  but  ruin ;  in  the  second  nothing  but  corrup- 
tion ;  in  the  third  nothing  but  devilishness.  They  are  working 
nothing  else  now  in  either  of  the  three.  They  have  never 
built  up  anything;  they  are  pure  destroyers.  The  day  one 
becomes  a  Mohammedan  he  loses  his  intellect,  his  skill  and 
his  common  sense.  Mohammedanism  is  a  poison,  fatal  to  any 
good  gifts  or  graces;  it  cultivates  in  him  falsehood,  cruelty 
and  lust.  It  was  sent  by  God  for  a  curse  to  the  Christians,  as 
a  punishment,  just  as  the  Philistines  were  sent  to  the  people 
of  Israel. 

The  book  of  Koran,  moreover,  teaches  that  all  those  who 
are  not  Mohammedans  should  be  frequently  invited  to  the  true 
religion;  that  in  case  of  complying  with  the  invitation  they 
should  be  well  treated  and  receive  every  consideration; 
should  they,  however,  perish  in  rejecting  the  true  faith,  all 
the  possessions  of  the  obstinates  are  declared  to  belong  le- 
gally to  the  true  believers,  and  here  is  the  Fetua,  or  sacred 
sentence.  "If  the  Gyver  or  Kaiffir  (the  blasphemer)  does  not 
renounce  his  blasphemy,  his  life  should  be  taken  away,  and 
all  his  goods  appropriated  by  the  true  believers."  Although 
this  is  not  the  present  practice  of  the  Moslems,  it  has  been  the 
only  rule  for  centuries  past. 

Therefore,  by  the  few  examples  here  given,  the  true 
nature  of  the  Mohammedan  religion  may  be  clearly  ascer- 
tained. That  religion,  as  you  may  observe,  gives  many  oppor- 
tunities for  the  corruption  of  the  morals  of  mankind,  and  with 
it  endangers  the  morals  and  materials  of  humanity.  One  of 
the  causes  of  deterioration  of  Christianitv  in  the  East  is,  and 


1 82  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

are  apt  to  follow  the  bad  example  set  before  them.  It  is  from 
this  spirit  the  book  of  Koran,  that  the  blood  of  many  inno- 
cent persons  has  been  shed  in  Turkey;  it  is  from  this  spirit 
that  children  and  delicate  women  have  been  ill-treated. 

It  has  already  been  shown  to  be  not  a  religion,  but  a 
system  of  falsehood,  hatred,  cruelty,  lust,  and  sensuality.  Of 
course  these  things  combined  can  only  result  in  corruption. 

It  would  seem  that  Mohammed  must  have  taken  his 
inspiration  from  both  the  domestic  and  a  bull.  A  rooster  is 
a  polygamist;  he  has  his  hens  without  limit.  He  claimed  to 
have  received  a  revelation  from  heaven  directing  him  to  take 
to  himself  any  woman  he  pleased,  no  matter  whether  she  was 
married  and  had  a  husband  or  not;  that  made  no  difference 
with  Mohammed.  He  took  any  woman  he  wanted,  and  if  her 
husband  objected  he  was  sure  to  be  put  to  death.  Moham- 
medans cannot  differ  from  their  prophet;  they  follow  him; 
they  strive  to  imitate  him  just  as  much  as  true  Christians 
strive  to  follow  and  imitate  Christ. 

The  Sultan  grows  more  of  a  beast  and  more  of  a  fiend 
as  he  grows  older,  and  all  the  Mohammedans  are  of  the  same 
stripe.  Armenian  men  and  Armenian  women  alike  dread 
the  approach  of  an  old  Turk  far  more  than  of  a  young  one. 
Unless  one  has  witnessed  a  fight  between  bulls  he  can  have 
little  idea  of  Turkish  warfare;  no  animal  fight  can  approach 
it  in  ferocity  or  insatiability.  When  a  bull  conquers  another, 
he  never  leaves  him  until  he  gores  him  to  death ;  so  when  Mo- 
hammedans conquer  a  nation,  be  sure  they  will  exterminate 
it.  To  them  mercy  means  apostasy.  To  leave  a  man  alive  or 
a  woman  unravished  is  to  be  false  to  the  precepts  of  Moham- 
med. They  cannot  help  it;  it  is  their  religion;  a  religion  for 
wild  animals.  Their  priests  go  to  the  mosques  and  preach  to 
them  thus:  "O,  believers  in  Mohammed,  love  your  fellow 
believers,  but  hate  and  kill  all  others;  they  are  Giaours, 
heathen  dogs,  filthy  hogs."  To  kill  a  Christian  and  to  kill  a 
hog  is  all  the  same  to  a  Mohammedan;  there  is  as  little  sin  in 
one  as  the  other.     The  priests  of  Mohammedan  Khojas  say: 


41* 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  183 

"Go  ask  them  to  accept  our  religion ;  if  they  do  you  must  not 
harm  them,  but  if  they  will  not,  kill  them,  for  they  have  no 
right  to  live  in  a  Mohammedan  country;  it  is  not  only  no  sin, 
but  a  great  virtue.  The  more  Christians  you  kill  the  greater 
reward  you  will  have  from  Allah  (the  God)  and  his  prophet 
Mohammed." 

The  Turks  are  slaughtering  Armenians  to  earn  this  reward. 
Of  course  if  the  men  apostatize  they  are  spared ;  but  the  Turk 
has  no  notion  of  losing  the  gratification  of  his  lust  on  the 
women  in  that  way.  A  woman  who  falls  into  their  hands  need 
not  hope  to  keep  her  virtue  on  any  terms,  even  by  abjuring 
her  religion.  They  violate  her  first,  and  force  her  to  become 
a  Mohammedan  afterwards. 

Let  it  be  fully  understood  throughout  the  Christian  world 
that  the  massacre  is  a  religious  demand.  The  Turks  have  to 
comply.  As  a  Christian  tries  to  be  faithful  to  Christ  and  His 
teachings,  so  the  Turks  are  trying  to  be  faithful  to  their 
prophet  and  his.  They  go  to  the  mosques  and  pray,  "Allah, 
(O  God),  help  us;  strengthen  our  hands  and  sharpen  our 
swords  to  kill  the  infidel  Armenian."  Then  they  come  from 
the  mosques  and  begin  to  kill,  and  plunder,  and  outrage,  and 
commit  every  sort  of  indescribable  atrocity  on  the  peaceable 
and  defenseless  Armenian.  And  it  will  grow  worse  instead  of 
better,  since  so-called  Christian  nations  have  given  the  Sultan 
public  notice  that  they  will  not  interfere  with  him.  Do  not  be 
deceived  by  his  lying  reports.  They  did  not  kill  the  Turks; 
they  never  dreamed  of  such  madness.  This  awful  fate  has 
fallen  on  them  purely  and  simply  for  being  Christian. 

The  second  cause  of  the  horrors  to  the  Armenians  of 
Turkey,  is  a  despotic  government. 

According  to  the  Koran,  the  Sultan  of  the  Empire  is  also 
Khalif  of  the  Mohammedan  religious  world.  He  cannot  ab- 
dicate either  office,  if  he  would,  without  vacating  the  other 
by  the  same  act. 

In  fact,  herein  lies  the  secret  of  the  present  Sultan's  policy, 
which  seems  suicidal  on  general  principles  of  government. 


184  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

He  has  been  lavish  in  the  building  and  repairing  of  the 
mosques  and  the  rooms  of  prayer  meeting,  and  also  in  estab- 
lishing Moslem  schools  throughout  his  dominions. 

The  Ottoman  Government  is  a  politico-religious  system. 
This  is  the  necessary  constitution  of  any  Mohammedan  sover- 
eign state,  but  the  conception  has  special  force  and  vitality 
in  Turkey,  whose  sovereign  claims  to  be  the  Mohammedan, 
and  thus  the  Khalif  of  the  Mohammedan  world.  The  whole 
fabric  of  the  Turkish  Empire  rests  on  a  religious  foundation; 
this  religious  foundation  is  not  the  general  religious  principle 
in  man,  but  the  particular  form  of  religion  established  by 
Mohammed.  The  Sultan  is  a  good  conscientious  Mohamme- 
dan. It  is  only  fair  to  believe,  even  if  he  were  not  a  sincere 
believer,  he  would  still  feel  compelled  to  adopt  the  same  course 
as  a  matter  of  internal  political  necessity.  The  Moslem  popu- 
lation look  to  him  as  the  defender  of  the  faith,  girded  with  the 
sword  of  the  prophet.  He  feels  it  imperative  at  hazards  to 
regain  lost  prestige  over  his  fanatical  subjects,  especially  in 
the  South,  where  rumblings  of  discontent  and  disloyalty  are 
ominous. 

According  to  the  book  of  the  Koran,  which  is  the  basis 
and  ultimate  authority  of  Mohammedan  law, — Code  Napo- 
leon, treaty  stipulatoins,  and  Imperial  Trades  notwithstand- 
ing,— the  whole  non-Moslem  population  of  Turkey  are  out- 
laws. The  millions  of  ancient  hereditary  inhabitants,  whether 
Greek,  Armenian,  Nestorian,  Jacobite,  Jew,  or  Syrian  are 
considered  aliens.  Their  legal  status  is  that  of  prisoners  of 
war,  with  corresponding  rights  and  responsibilities.  Not  one 
of  them  is  expected  or  even  allowed  to  serve  in  the  army. 
Xon-Moslems,  whose  services  are  indispensable  to  the  Gov- 
ernment, are,  in  rare  cases,  put  in  civil  offices,  especially  where 
integrity  or  ability  can  be  found.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the 
above  is  true  in  theory,  and  it  is  equally  true  that  the  theory 
is  carried  out  so  far  as  fear  of  intervention  by  Christian  na- 
tions permits.  So  far  as  we  can  judge  the  Sultan  is  a  sincere 
and   honest   Mohammedan,   and   regards   himself   as   a   true 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  185 

Khalif — or  successor  of  the  prophet  of  Mohammed.  He  is 
the  chief  defender  of  the  faith;  under  God  the  absolute  arbiter 
of  its  destinies.  He  has  undoubtedly  done  his  best  to  recon- 
cile the  interests  of  the  Khalifate  with  those  of  the  Empire. 

In  one  particular  (the  policy  of  the  Sultan)  is  condemned 
by  most  enlightened  Mohammedans,  as  strongly  as  by  Chris- 
tians. His  attempt  to  concentrate  the  whole  administration 
of  the  Empire  in  his  own  hands  has  led  to  the  establishment 
of  a  dual  government — that  of  the  palace  and  the  Porte. 
The  whole  machinery  of  a  government  exists  at  the  Porte. 
There  are  ministers  and  fully  organized  departments;  there 
is  a  council  of  ministers  and  a  council  of  state.  All  business 
is  supposed  to  pass  through  their  hands,  and  the  whole  ad- 
ministration is  supposed  to  be  subordinate  to  them.  All  is, 
of  course,  subject  to  the  supreme  will  of  the  Sultan,  but  his 
official  advisers  and  his  official  agents  are  at  the  Porte. 

The  government  of  Turkey,  under  the  supreme  rule  of 
the  Sultan,  is  composed  of  the  Sublime  Porte  and  the  council 
of  state;  under  those  there  is  the  administration  of  the  de- 
partments in  the  central  government,  and  of  the  provinces 
throughout  the  Empire.  There  is,  however,  an  informal,  yet 
none  the  less  powerful  element,  known  sometimes  as  the 
privy  council,  or  the  palace  party. 

The  Sublime  Porte,  which  derives  its  name  from  the 
gate  where  the  early  Sultans  held  their  audiences,  and  which 
enter  the  seraglio  grounds  near  the  Mosque  of  St.  Sophia, 
corresponds  very  closely  to  the  cabinets  of  other  countries. 
Its  officers  are  the  Grand  Vizier,  the  Sheikh-ul  Islam,  the 
Ministers  of  the  Interior,  of  War,  Evkaf,  Public  Instruction, 
Public  Works,  Foreign  Affairs,  Finance,  Marine,  Justice  and 
the  Civil  List,  and  the  President  of  the  State.  The  Grand 
Vizier  receives  his  appointment  immediately  from  the  Sultan, 
and  makes  up  his  own  Cabinet,  though  with  the  Sultan's  ap- 
proval. He  has  no  particular  portfolio,  but  presides  over  the 
general  Government,  and  his  word  is  ordinarily  all-powerful 
in  any  of  the  departments.    The  Sheikh-ul  Islam  also  nomi- 


1 86  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

nally  receives  his  appointment  direct  from  the  Sultan,  but  in 
most  cases  is  the  choice  of  the  Grand  Vizier.  He  is  not,  as  is 
so  often  supposed,  the  head  of  the  Moslem  religion,  but  is 
the  representative  in  the  Cabinet  of  the  Ulima,  the  general 
body  of  teachers  of  Moslem  law,  having  no  very  definite  or- 
ganization in  themselves  and  yet  exerting  as  a  mass  a  very 
powerful  influence  over  the  Empire. 

The  Sheikh-ul  Islam  has  comparatively  little  influence, 
except  when  there  is  a  necessity  for  the  interpretation  of 
Moslem  law  in  the  conduct  of  the  Government;  then  he  be- 
comes an  important  member.  The  other  members  of  the 
Sublime  Porte  conduct  their  departments  in  much  the  same 
way  as  in  the  other  Governments.  Two  only  require  special 
mention :  The  Department  of  Public  Instruction  is  most  im- 
portant, including  as  it  does  the  Board  Censors,  who  have 
the  right  to  pass  upon  the  publication  or  importation  of  all 
literary  matter,  and  can  decree  the  suppression  or  confisca- 
tion of  any  newspaper  or  of  any  book  which  they  think  is 
derogatory  to  the  interests  of  the  Empire.  The  Department 
of  Evkaf  is  peculiar  to  Turkish  administration.  It  has  to  do 
with  the  care  of  the  great  amount  of  property  vested  in  the 
mosques.  Under  Turkish  law  property  which  in  other  states 
would  revert  to  the  Government,  reverts  usually  to  the  nearest 
mosque,  and  individuals  as  an  act  of  piety  frequently  deed 
real  estate  or  other  property  to  the  mosques,  which  thus  have 
become  immensely  wealthy.  This  property  may  be  purchased 
on  condition  of  the  payment  of  rent  to  the  mosque  or  of  an 
annuity  to  any  persons  specified  in  the  deed  by  which  the 
property  is  handed  to  the  mosque.  The  income  of  this  de- 
partment has  been  somewhat  reduced  of  late  years  by  the 
seizure  of  a  considerable  portion  of  it  by  the  Government. 
Under  this  same  department  comes  also  the  care  of  the  gen- 
eral expenses  for  Mohammedan  worship,  such  as  the  pil- 
grimages to  Mecca,  the  public  reading  of  the  Koran,  etc.  .  . 
In  fact,  however,  there  is  another  Government  at  the 
Palace  of  Yildiz,   more  powerful  than  the  official   Govern- 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  187 

ment,  made  up  of  chamberlains,  moollahs,  eunuchs,  astrolo- 
gers and  nondescripts,  and  supported  by  the  secret  police, 
which  spares  no  one  from  the  Grand  Vizier  down.  The  gen- 
eral policy  of  the  Empire  is  determined  by  this  government 
and  the  most  important  questions  of  the  state  are  often  treated 
and  decided,  while  the  highest  officials  at  the  Porte  are  left 
in  absolute  ignorance  of  what  is  going  on.  It  is  needless  to 
add  that  the  Porte  and  the  Palace  are  at  sword's  points,  and 
block  each  others  movements  as  far  as  they  can.     .     .     . 

The  Sultan  evidently  believes  that  he  is  equally  inde- 
pendent of  all  these  governments,  and  decides  all  questions, 
great  and  small,  for  himself.  In  form  he  does  so,  but  no  man 
can  act  independently  of  all  his  sources  of  information,  and 
of  personal  influence  of  his  entourage;  under  the  present  sys- 
tem he  makes  himself  responsible  for  every  blunder  and  every 
iniquity  committed  in  the  Empire,  but  he  has  disgraced  three 
distinguished  Grand  Viziers  for  telling  him  so,  and  seems  to 
have  no  idea  of  the  causes  of  the  intense  dissatisfaction  with 
his  government  which  prevails  among  his  Mohammedan  sub- 
jects. The  Turks  as  well  as  the  Christians  also  condemn  the 
laws  restricting  personal  freedom,  which  have  increased  in 
severity  every  year.  In  many  ways  these  laws  are  more  gall- 
ing to  the  Turks  than  the  Christians. 

For  administrative  purposes  the  Empire  is  divided  into 
vilayets,  these  again  into  mutassarifliks  and  kaimakamliks, 
and  these  again  into  mudirliks.  The  two  highest  grades  are 
governed  by  Pashas  appointed  in  Constantinople;  the  third 
grade  or  kaimakam  receives  his  appointment  ordinarily  from 
Constantinople,  but  sometimes  from  the  provincial  superiors. 
The  mudire  are  almost  invariably  local  magistrates. 

Associated  with  each  one  of  those  officials  is  a  council, 
or  mejliss,  including  prominent  Turks.  Turks  are  the  head 
authority;  tender  their  advice  when  it  is  desired  to  the  Gov- 
ernor, and  consult  in  general  in  regard  to  the  interests  of  the 
communities. 


1 88  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

There  is  another  evil  connected  with  this  system  which 
may  lead  to  serious  difficulties  with  foreign  powers.  All 
foreign  relations  are  supposed  to  be  managed  through  the 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  or  the  Grand  Vizier,  but  these 
officials  have  no  power  and  but  little  influence;  they  can  prom- 
ise nothing  and  do  nothing;  but  in  all  delicate  diplomatic 
questions  it  is  essential  to  treat  with  responsible  agents,  and 
to  discuss  them  with  such  agents  in  a  way  in  which  it  is  impos- 
sible to  treat  with  the  Sovereign  himself.  The  present  sys- 
tem has  been  a  serious  injury  to  Turkey.  It  has  roused  the 
hostility  of  all  the  embassies  and  led  them  to  feel  and  report 
to  their  governments  that  there  is  no  use  in  trying  to  do  any- 
thing to  save  the  Empire;  that  it  is  hopelessly  corrupt,  and 
the  sooner  it  comes  to  an  end  the  better  for  the  world.  There 
is  no  longer  any  concerted  action  of  Europe  at  Constanti- 
nople for  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the  people. 

Over  this  whole  administration  presides  the  Sultan  him- 
self. His  word  is  supreme  in  each  department,  and  he  can 
and  frequently  does  override  the  decisions  of  his  ministers. 
More  than  almost  any  of  his  predecessors  in  the  line  of  Otto- 
man Sultans,  Abdul  Hamid  II.  takes  personal  cognizance  of 
the  most  minute  details  of  his  Government.  The  interests  not 
only  of  his  palace  and  his  capital,  but  of  the  most  remote 
provinces  come  under  his  eye.  His  industry  is  proverbial,  and 
to  his  ability  all  who  know  him  personally  bear  cordial  wit- 
ness. He  is  however,  by  no  means  the  absolute  autocrat  that 
he  appears.  He  realizes  very  clearly  his  position  between 
two  contradictory  and  mutually  repellant  forces,  the  progress 
of  the  West  and  the  conservatism  of  the  East.  If  he  an- 
tagonizes the  former  too  much  he  runs  the  risk  of  losing  his 
Empire;  if  he  fails  to  keep  in  sympathy  with  the  latter  his 
Khaliphate  is  endangered.  His  position  is  one  by  no  means 
to  be  envied,  and  no  judgment  of  his  can  be  just  which  does 
not  take  into  account  the  peculiarities  of  that  position. 

If  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  would  come  out  of  his  palace, 
restore  to  the  Porte  its  full  responsibility,  disband  its  secret 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  189 

police,  trust  his  Mohammedan  subjects  and  do  simple  justice 
to  the  Christian,  his  life  would  be  far  more  secure  than  it  is 
to-day,  with  all  precautions.  His  people  and  all  the  world 
would  recognize  the  great  and  noble  qualities  which  they 
now  ignore,  and  welcome  him  as  the  wisest  and  best  of  all 
the  Sultans. 

The  sad  pity  of  it  is  that  he  will  never  do  it.  It  is  too  late. 
The  influence  of  the  palace  favorites  is  too  strong.  He  will 
appear  in  history  not  as  the  Sultan  who  saved  the  Empire,  but 
as  the  one  who  might  have  saved  it  and  did  not. 

I  might  mention  a  thousand  similar  cases,  all  of  them 
traceable  to  this  fatal  spirit  of  the  Koran.  If  such  a  despotic 
Empire,  or  such  a  book  of  the  Koran,  be  in  the  hands  of  the 
Government,  and  if  it  should  regard  its  subject  races  in  the 
same  light  as  the  Koran  regards 'non-Mohammedans,  how 
can  the  populations  living  under  it  be  reformed  or  improved 
from  within?  All  of  you  will  of  course  agree  with  me  in  say- 
ing that  it  is  impossible. 

Now,  this  is  the  condition  of  the  despotic  Empire  or  Gov- 
ernment, these  are  the  principal  causes  of  the  internal  ruin  of 
Turkey. 

III.  The  third  cause  of  the  horrors  of  the  Armenians  in 
Turkey:  these  are  the  products  of  the  misrule  and  oppression 
of  the  Government. 

The  rule  of  the  Turkish  Government  is  hopelessly  and 
remedilessly  bad  wherever  that  rule  extends.  For  example: 
The  income  of  the  Government  is  derived  from  customs,  dues, 
tithes,  levied  on  all  agricultural  produce;  from  the  sale  of  certain 
articles,  as  salt,  which  are  Government  monopolies,  and  from 
imports  on  pretty  nearly  everything,  and  from  the  capitation 
and  exemption  taxes  levied  upon  the  Christian  subjects.  The 
tithes  are  generally  framed  out,  and  by  the  misrule  this  gives 
occasion  for  the  greatest  amount  of  oppression.  There  is 
no  regular  system  of  collection,  and  when  the  treasury  runs 
low  the  Government  sends  out  requisition  to  the  interior 
provinces.     The  money  is  then  collected  in  whatever  way  is 


I90  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

feasible.  There  is  no  regularity  in  the  payment  of  salaries. 
The  Government  is  notoriously  in  arrears  in  regard  to  the 
payment  of  employees,  being  sometimes  months,  and  even 
years,  behind. 

The  statement  that  a  month's  salary  is  to  be  paid  be- 
comes a  matter  of  comment  in  the  public  press  and  of  general 
congratulation.  The  result  is  widespread  corruption  in  all 
departments.  The  absence  of  salaries  is  made  up  for  by  the 
collection  of  fees;  and  every  official  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest,  through  whose  hands  any  money  passes,  is  sure  to 
keep  as  much  of  it  as  he  thinks  he  can  without  incurring  too 
severe  wrath  from  his  superior. 

Throughout  a  large  section  of  the  fairest  part  of  the 
earth's  surface  business  enterprise,  intellectual  progress,  to 
say  nothing  of  religious  freedom  have  long  been  dead.  In  the 
fair  lands  which  border  on  the  Mediterranean,  lands  which 
should  be  the  garden  spots  of  the  earth,  there  is  and  has  been 
for  many  generations,  poverty,  wretchedness  and  squalor, 
which  can  hardly  be  credited  in  lands  that  are  better  governed. 

Xaturally  the  character  of  the  people  has  deteriorated, 
and  a  hopeless  fatalism  or  cunning  mendacity,  which  seeks 
to  win  by  deceit  what  it  cannot  gain  by  fairer  methods,  have 
become  characteristic  of  the  people;  in  fact  whether  we 
consider  the  character  of  the  people,  the  soil  on  which  they 
live,  the  houses  that  cover  them  or  the  institutions  by  which 
they  are  misgoverned,  we  find  that  the  trail  of  the  Turk  is 
over  them  all. 

The  traveler  through  Palestine  cannot  but  be  impressed 
by  these  facts;  still  more  he  who  takes  the  overland  journey 
across  Asia  Minor,  where  the  Turk  has  had  more  full  and 
undisputed  sway. 

He  will  find  himself  in  a  land  of  great  natural  resources, 
large  possibilities;  a  land  with  a  fertile  soil,  and  exhaustless 
mines  of  precious  metals;  a  land  of  rushing  rivers  and  bold 
and  rugged  mountain  scenery.  When  the  Turk  is  deposed 
and   some  decent  Government  establishes   its  sway  in   Asia 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  I9I 

Minor,  we  shall  read  of  Cook's  parties  and  Gaze's  Tourists 
in  the  magnificent  land  of  Taurus.  The  Cilician  gates  will 
be  open  to  the  traveler,  though  for  many  years  they  have  been 
practically  closed  by  the  inefficient  shiftlessness  of  a  Govern- 
ment which  taxes  the  people  to  death  for  roads  which  are 
never  built,  and  bridges  which  are  never  constructed.  Then 
the  mines  which,  with  their  hidden  treasures,  have  been  sealed 
to  all  enterprise,  will  pour  their  wealth  into  the  world's  cof- 
fers. But  now  the  Turk  reasons  with  characteristic  phlegm, 
that  so  long  as  the  mines  are  undisturbed  the  wealth  of  the 
nation  is  intact,  and  he  does  not  propose  to  allow  outer  bar- 
barians to  come  in  and  open  up  mines  and  cart  off  his  treas- 
ures of  gold  and  silver.  This  is  carrying  the  stocking-leg 
theory  of  finance  to  its  absurdest  limits.  To  be  sure  the  traveler 
finds  one  feeble,  struggling  little  railway  on  the  Mediterranean 
coast  of  Turkey,  from  Mersin  to  Adana,  a  distance  of  about 
forty  miles.  It  was  built  by  foreign  capital,  however,  and  is 
managed  by  foreign  enterprise,  and  has  been  hampered  and 
taxed  almost  off  the  face  of  the  earth  by  the  ruling. 

There  is  also  a  passable  wagon  road  for  Turkey  for  a  few 
miles  from  Tarsus  toward  the  Cilician  gates,  but  this  passable 
road  soon  runs  into  an  almost  impassable  cart  track. 
Though  the  camel  path  does  not  exactly  run  up  a  tree,  it  seems 
to  loose  itself  when  it  gets  to  the  most  inaccessible  portions 
of  the  Taurus  Mountains,  or  at  least  is  fit  only  for  the  sure- 
footed "ships  of  the  desert"  that  continually  traverse  it  with 
their  swaying  loads  and  their  tinkling  bells.  The  only  bridges 
in  many  parts  of  the  country  are  those  built  by  the  Romans, 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  so  substantially  and  so  scien- 
tifically that  the  war  of  the  elements  and  the  neglect  of  the  Turk- 
ish Empire  for  twenty  centuries  has  not  been  able  to  destroy 
them.  It  should  be  said  that  the  road  which  starts  from  Tarsus 
comesto  light  here  and  there  during  the  hundreds  of  mileswhich 
lie  between  thebirthplace  of  St.  Paul  and  the  ancient  city  Angora, 
in  old  Galatea;  but  it  as  often  gets  lost  again  or  is  obstructed 
and  rendered  impassable  by  falling  trees  and  descending  boul- 


192  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

ders  which  no  one  has  energy  enough  to  move  out  of  the  way. 
And  yet  this  road  is  the  excuse  for  wringing  tens  of  thousands 
of  pounds  every  year  out  of  the  poverty-stricken  inhabitants. 
To  be  sure,  the  money  is  not  expended  upon  the  road,  and 
every  year  it  is  falling  into  a  more  utterly  impassable  condi- 
tion; but,  no  matter,  it  furnishes  an  excuse  for  yearly  taxes 
and  for  more  misrule  or  misgovernment. 

There  are  no  hotels  in  that  country,  or  inns  even,  of  the 
humblest  character,  along  this  highway,  which  is  the  only 
artery  between  Constantinople  and  the  same  places  of  the 
Mediterranean  ports;  but  there  are  stone  huts  called  khans, 
in  which  men  and  bullocks  and  camels  and  asses  may  rest 
their  wearied  bodies  in  delightful  promiscuity,  while  all  are  im- 
partially attacked  by  other  occupants  that  are  not  recorded  in 
the  census,  and  are  not  registered  upon  the  books  even  of  a 
Turk.  For  much  of  the  distance  along  this  highway  every 
tree  and  shrub  and  root  has  been  plucked  up  to  furnish  a 
little  scanty  fuel  for  the  shivering  inhabitants.  The  broad 
stretches  of  tableland,  naturally  so  fertile,  are  so  poorly  tilled 
with  the  rude  implements  of  the  past,  that  only  a  scanty  popu- 
lation can  be  maintained,  and  these  at  "a  poor,  dying  rate," 
where  millions  might  thrive  under  a  good  government. 

The  villages  in  the  interior  are  for  the  most  part  built 
of  sun-dried  mud,  though  sometimes  of  stone,  and  are  not 
clean  and  healthy.  Very  naturally,  all  enterprise  and  energy 
are  killed  out  of  such  a  people  by  hundreds  of  years  of  misrule 
and  oppression.  Why  should  a  man  strive  to  get  on  in  the 
world,  when  he  knows  that  he  will  only  make  himself,  by  his 
enterprise,  the  special  prey  of  the  oppressor?  Why  should 
he  plant  an  orchard  of  superior  fruit,  when  he  knows  that  the 
tax-gatherer  will  get  the  best  of  it?  Why  should  he  try  to 
improve  his  worldly  condition  in  any  way,  when  he  knows  that 
unless  he  can  cover  up  his  wealth  and  simulate  poverty,  he 
will  but  become  the  target  for  every  corrupt  and  unscrupulous 
official?  The  land  of  Turkey  has  been  picked  bare;  even 
the  pin  feathers  of  enterprise,  if  we  may  be  excused  the  ex- 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  193 

pression,  have  been  singed  off  by  a  rapacious  officialism  dur- 
ing many  generations. 

Undoubtedly  the  rule  of  the  Turk  is  hopelessly  and  reme- 
dilessly  bad  wherever  that  rule  extends.  The  mildew  and 
blight  of  his  occupation  are  found  wherever  the  star  and  cres- 
cent wave.  Just  as  truly  as  in  the  olden  days,  destruction 
and  desolation  were  left  in  the  wake  of  the  victorious  "horse- 
tails" of  the  triumphant  Sultans,  so  now  desolation  and  de- 
struction are  left  in  the  retreating  wake  of  the  decadent  and 
conquered  Sultan. 

The  history  of  six  hundred  years  teaches  us  that  it  is  of 
little  use  to  talk  about  mending  the  reign  of  the  Turk.  There 
is  nothing  left  but  to  end  it.  To  mend  it  is  out  of  the  quest- 
ion. To  end  it  is  the  only  hope  for  Moslem  and  Christian 
alike,  who  dwell  within  the  Sultan's  domains.  And  now  these 
centuries  of  atrocious  misrule  and  almost  inconceivable  cor- 
ruption are  crowned  by  the  murder  and  the  pillage  and  the 
wholesale  massacres,  which  have  caused  the  blood  of  civiliza- 
tion to  run  cold;  outrages  that  will  mark  the  years  of  1895-96 
with  such  blots  as  no  other  years  have  known  for  many  centu- 
ries. Yet  the  civilized  world  allows  the  Great  Powers,  each 
disarmed  against  the  Turk  by  their  mutual  jealousies,  to  look 
on  supinely  while  the  butchery  in  Armenia  never  ceases. 
Still  the  Queen's  speech,  read  at  the  opening  of  Parliament 
in  the  year  1896,  talks  gingerly  about  the  Sultan's  promises 
to  institute  reforms,  while  very  likely,  at  the  very  moment 
when  her  speech  was  read,  the  Sultan's  hirelings  were  mur- 
dering Christians,  pillaging  their  property  and  firing  their  vil- 
lages. 

What  will  our  grandchildren  think  of  the  boasted  civiliza- 
tion of  the  nineteenth  century?  How  will  the  people  of  the 
happier  age  which  is  to  come  look  back  with  shuddering  hor- 
ror, not  only  upon  the  deeds  enacted  in  Turkey,  but  with 
scarcely  less  horror,  upon  the  Christian  nations  who  by  reason 
of  their  insane  jealousy  of  one  another,  permitted  those  atroci- 
ties, which  they  might  have  prevented. 


194  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

Alas,  that  this  century  should  be  known  not  only  as  the 
century  of  invention  and  discovery,  of  the  railway  and  the 
steamship,  and  the  telegraph  and  the  telephone,  the  century 
of  religious  progress  and  missionary  enterprise,  the  century 
of  the  Sunday  School  and  the  young  people's  movements, 
but  also  the  century  stained  with  the  deepest  dye  of  Chris- 
tian blood  of  which  the  great  Christian  powers  can  never  wash 
their  hands. 

"The  oppressive  character  of  the  Government  of  the  Turk- 
ish Empire,  with  respect  to  the  subject  race,"  is  a  very  clear 
declaration  on  the  part  of  the  editor  of  the  Independent  of 
the  situation  in  the  country  known  as  the  Turkish  Empire.  It 
is  a  character  that  is  important;  it  is  an  actually  existing  Gov- 
ernment that  counts,  and  the  mischievous  results  of  that  Gov- 
ernment concern  the  civilized  world  to-day  more  in  the  rela- 
tion to  the  "subject  race,"  than  the  general  reformation  of  that 
misrule  itself. 

The  question  is  not  so  complicated  as  vast;  not  requiring 
so  much  skill  in  dealing  with  it  as  patient  study  to  have  a  full 
comprehension  of  the  main  factors  entering  into  it  as  potent 
influences. 

As  in  a  medical  examination,  so  in  this,  euphony  of  dic- 
tion is  to  be  sacrificed  to  truth;  and  first,  the  "Government  of 
the  Turkish  Empire,"  as  it  is  to-day  and  has  been  for  500 
years,  is  only  Mohammedan  domination  with  regard  to  the 
non-Mohammedan  population  of  the  country.  Secondly,  the 
"subject  races"  are  only  slave  population  and  prisoners  of 
war;  and,  thirdly,  the  essential  character  of  that  domination 
over  those  races  has  been  a  thorough  and  absolute  system 
of  oppression.  In  entering  upon  remarks  regarding  the  char- 
acter of  that  oppression,  it  might  be  necessary  to  point  to  the 
proofs  of  the  above  statements  regarding  the  Government 
itself  and  the  status  of  the  "subject  races."  For  that  part,  it 
is  quite  sufficient  to  point  to  the  whole  history  of  the  Turkish 
Government  through  every  step  of  its  settled  existence  dur- 
ing 500  years.    Not  very  keen  insight  is  necessary,  either,  but 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  I95 

only  deliberate  study  and  simple  impartial  judgment,  to  con- 
vince any  intelligent  mind  of  the  justice  of  the  charges. 

The  character  of  the  oppression  of  the  Turkish  Govern- 
ment must  be  tried  by  the  one  test  which  stands  higher  than  all 
theory  and  even  logical  inferences;  by  that  test  which  has  the 
stamp  of  the  highest  authority  and  comes  with  the  power  of  a 
prima,  facie  evidence  that  compels  conviction.  "By  their  fruits 
ye  shall  know  them."  The  timber  of  the  oak  is  what  tells, 
and  we  care  not  so  much  for  the  foliage  or  the  acorn.  The 
flower  of  the  rosebush  is  enough  to  satisfy  us  regarding  the 
result  of  the  gardener's  work :  but  from  the  orchard  we  expect 
fruit,  and  by  its  fruit  we  judge  of  the  value  of  the  husband- 
man's labor  and  of  wisdom  of  his  management.  A  Govern- 
ment is  not  for  exhibition.  It  is  not  merely  to  make  history. 
Before  the  judgment  of  God  and  man  it  is  to  stand  and  be 
judged  by  the  fruit  of  its  influences  upon  human  life;  its  hap- 
piness, its  comfort,  its  development — moral,  physical  and  in- 
tellectual, judged  by  that  standard. 

1.  The  Government  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  in  its  rela- 
tion to  the  "subject  races,"  is  found  to  be  radically  and  es- 
sentially oppressive.  The  Turkish  Government  is  based  upon 
the  Mohammedan  religion,  the  component  elements  of  which 
are  the  sword  and  the  Koran.  While  for  half  a  century  Eu- 
ropean diplomats  have  been  deceiving  themselves  and  the 
civilized  world  that  the  Koran  could  cease  to  be  the  law  that 
regulated  the  movements  of  the  sword,  the  events  of  the  past 
year  and  a  half  have  proved  that  the  history  of  the  Turkish 
Government  has  long  ago  demonstrated  that  the  sword  and 
the  Koran  are  united  so  that  nothing  but  the  death  of  one 
or  the  other  can  put  them  asunder.  If  the  Government  of  the 
Turkish  Empire  could  be  induced  to  recognize  and  permit 
the  development  of  an  "Ottoman  Empire,"  after  the  type  of 
civilized  governments,  where  the  equality  of  all  citizens  before 
the  law  is  the  basic  principle,  oppression  in  the  Government 
might  be  treated  as  a  disease;  but  as  the  Turkish  Empire  has 
alwavs  been,  and  is  to-day  a  "Mohammedan  Empire,"  oppres- 


I96  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

sion  of  the  Christian  and  the  "infidel"  in  it  is  a  constitutional 
quality. 

For  those  who  have  at  heart,  not  only  the  fate  of  the  Chris- 
tian races  in  Turkey,  but  also  the  interests  of  civilization  and 
Christendom  at  large,  this  must  stand  as  the  most  important 
element  in  the  case,  namely,  that  the  Government  of  the  Turk- 
ish Empire,  when  true  to  itself,  and  standing  upon  the  ground 
of  its  highest  efficiency,  is  by  nature  destructive  of  those  forces 
which  make  for  righteousness  in  this  world,  and  are  the  foun- 
dation of  that  which  is  counted  by  the  Aryan  races  as  the 
highest  civilization. 

All  the  other  characteristics  are  the  outcome  of  this  one 
essential  fact,  and  will  be  influenced  by  the  remedy  brought 
to  bear  upon  this  root  of  the  evil  itself. 

2.  Turkish  oppression  is  universal;  it  oppresses  the 
"subject  races,"  in  all  places  and  in  all  their  relations.  The 
unalterable  disabilities  deny  them  justice  in  the  courts,  as- 
suring immunity  to  the  robber  and  the  highwayman  and  the 
swindler,  if  he  is  only  a  Mohammedan.  The  prosperity  of  the 
Christian  races,  merchant  and  artisan,  dependent  upon  justice 
and  protection,  is  thus  reduced  to  a  deplorable  minimum; 
povertv  is  the  highway  open  before  every  Christian  commu- 
nity; but  as  taxation,  unremitting,  unlimited,  and  merciless, 
is  also  the  law  of  the  land,  the  instinct  of  self-preservation 
drives  them  on  to  labor  incessantlv  in  order  to  remedy  the 
evil  as  far  as  possible.  In  spite  of  the  fertile  soil  and  abundant 
natural  resources,  therefore,  the  "subject  races"  of  the  Turk- 
ish Empire  are  under  the  heel  of  a  grinding  oppression. 

After  centuries  of  honest,  toilsome  life,  in  sight  of  the 
golden  dawn  of  the  world's  greatest  century,  and  with  the 
thunder  of  the  chariot  wheels  of  modern  progress  in  their 
ears,  the  Christian  "subjects"  of  the  Sultan  are  there  to-day 
without  railroads  or  even  highways,  without  any  "improve- 
ments." ancient  or  modern,  in  science  or  art,  agriculture  or 
sanitation,  with  no  police,  and  no  fire  alarms,  no  water  works, 
and  no  house  lighting  or  street  lighting  system,  and  as  the 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  197 

shadows  of  evening  descend,  the  entire  land  from  east  to 
west  or  Mt.  Ararat  to  the  Adriatic  sinks  into  fitful  slumber, 
under  the  black  wings  of  a  night  of  terror  and  insecurity  that 
best  enables  weary  souls  to  comprehend  the  felicity  of  a  here- 
after when  "there  shall  be  no  night  there." 

The  universality  of  the  oppression  is  also  assured  by  the 
fact  that  the  Mohammedan  of  all  conditions,  however  ignor- 
ant or  dull  in  other  respects,  is  remarkably  well  versed  in  this 
one  doctrine,  that  he  is  lord  and  master,  while  the  Christian  is 
the  slave;  how  he  is  to  be  reminded  of  his  subordinate  condi- 
tion with  every  opportunity.  An  intelligent  residence,  of  any 
length  of  time  in  Turkey,  would  convince  one  of  this  almost 
astounding  fact.  The  Governor  or  the  Pasha,  as  true  Moslems, 
have  never  had  scruples  in  denying  justice  to  the  Christian, 
in  receiving  bribes  from  defendant  and  plaintiff  alike,  in  ex- 
tending their  protection  to  the  murderers  of  men  and  the 
ravishers  of  women;  but  the  barbarous  Kurds  on  the  moun- 
tains, as  well  as  the  beggar  women  in  the  streets  of  Constan- 
tinople, are  just  as  conscious  of  their  privilege  in  this  direc- 
tion as  the  watchful  guardians  of  Turkish  law  in  high  places. 
On  the  hills  of  the  Golden  Horn,  above  Balat,  on  a  sunny 
afternoon,  a  Protestant  minister  was  out  walking  with  a  little 
girl  and  her  brother.  The  girl  was  dressed  after  the  fashion 
of  Europeans,  and  to  guard  her  eyes  from  the  bright  sun- 
light a  green  veil  covered  her  face.  There  were  Turkish  vil- 
lages around,  and  a  group  of  Turkish  women  were  passing 
bv.  Suddenly  one  of  them  sprang  toward  the  little  girl  and 
snatched  the  veil  from  her  head  and  tore  it  into  shreds  with 
ominous  mutterings  and  imprecations.  The  veil  was  green, 
the  sacred  color  of  the  Mohammedan  religion,  to  be  worn 
only  by  the  highest  clergy.  How  could  the  child  of  the  ac- 
cursed "Giaour"  dare  to  go  about  under  its  shadow.  Years 
afterward,  far  away  on  the  jagged  heights  of  Montenegro,  a 
bridal  party  of  Christians  were  attacked,  as  reported  by  the 
British  consul,  by  a  band  of  Turkish  ruffians.  They  cut  the 
bride  into  pieces,  half  killed  the  bridegroom,  raised  a  funeral 


I98  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

pvrc,  and  burned  the  dead  and  dying  under  the  rays  of  the 
setting  sun.  The  bride  had  worn  a  green  velvet  jacket.  Away 
on  the  mountains  of  Armenia  the  Kurdish  chief,  Genjo,  upon 
the  recovery  of  his  son  from  a  fatal  malady,  went  out  to  seek 
a  thank  offering  to  the  God  of  heaven,  and  the  sacrifice  he 
decided  upon  was  the  lives  of  seven  Christian  priests.  Up  and 
down  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Turkish  Em- 
pire, at  the  hands  of  millions  of  Mohammedans,  universal  op- 
pression in  every  conceivable  shape  has  been  the  law  for  the 
"subject  races"  of  the  Turkish  Empire. 

3.  The  oppression  of  the  Turk  is  cumulative.  Poverty 
and  ignorance  bring  degradation,  and  degradation  hardens 
human  nature,  cruelty  becomes  an  instrument,  and  lust  is 
there  as  the  impelling  power.  Slowly,  steadily,  from  village 
to  city,  from  the  cities  to  the  capital  of  the  Empire,  the  great 
tidal  waves  of  cruel  oppression  have  brought  devastation 
through  the  centuries,  and  once  and  again  the  return  current 
has  dashed  itself  against  the  highlands  of  Armenia,  as  well 
as  the  habitations  of  other  Christian  races,  and  opened  before 
the  eyes  of  Christendom  ghastly  pictures  of  blood  and  de- 
struction that  to  the  mind  of  the  uninitiated  have  appeared  as 
accidental  developments.  The  forces  of  this  evil  are  there  al- 
ways, and  are  constantly  accumulating  their  momentum.  It 
is  a  farce  to  speak  of  inability  to  control  fanaticism  on  the  part 
of  the  Government  or  the  Sultans  of  Turkey.  It  were  just 
as  reasonable  to  speak  of  the  helplessness  of  the  man  to  avert 
disaster  who  loosens  a  mighty  boulder  from  the  mountain 
heights  above  his  village,  or  finds  the  entertainment  of  a  sum- 
mer day  by  carving  a  channel  in  the  dam  above  the  citv.  Sure 
enough,  the  ignorance  of  the  Mohammedan  disqualifies  him 
from  understanding  the  science  of  the  correlation  of  forces  in 
the  Kingdom  of  the  devil,  but  of  their  nature  he  is  not  ig- 
norant, and  glories  in  his  liberty  to  set  them  moving  in  the 
midst  of  the  Christian  population  of  the  Empire. 

4.  And,  hence  the  greatest  evil  of  the  Turkish  oppres- 
sion is  its  far-reaching  character.     We  must  admit  that  there 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  199 

are  degrees  of  sin  and  evil ;  that  there  is  a  sin  against  the  spirit 
which  far  outweighs  many  transgressions.  The  oppression 
of  the  Mohammedan  Government  by  its  universal,  cumulative 
weight  has  crushed  and  is  now  crushing  out  those  spiritual 
qualities  which  make  the  fiber  of  true  human  souls.  No  one 
who  believes  in  the  soul  of  man  and  its  undying  worth  could 
fail  to  be  appalled  at  the  sight  of  the  havoc  that  has  been 
wrought  upon  the  manhood  of  the  people  inhabiting  Turkey 
in  consequence  of  Mohammedan  oppression.  Degeneration 
and  degradation  lose  their  significance  here.  It  is  spiritual 
contagion;  it  is  intellectual  rottenness.  From  early  childhood 
thousands  of  the  Christian  subjects  of  the  Turkish  Govern- 
ment, directly  or  indirectly  in  its  employ,  are  led  to  seek  pro- 
motion by  qualifying  to  serve  men  whose  business  is  theft  and 
corruption.  A  Pasha  or  Governor  in  the  interior  seeks  an  ac- 
countant or  a  treasurer,  not  to  render  accurate  accounts  to 
the  Minister  of  Finance,  but  to  devise  ways  and  means  by 
which  both  the  imperial  treasury  and  the  population  of  the 
district  can  be  robbed  in  a  manner  that  will  be  the  least  open 
to  detection  and  the  most  profitable  for  the  private  treasury 
of  the  Pasha  or  the  Governor  himself.  Thousands  of  the 
Christian  youths  of  the  land,  naturally  the  most  intelligent  and 
capable  among  them,  have  been  for  centuries  trained  in  a 
school  of  corruption  and  villainy,  to  oppress  their  own  coun- 
trymen, as  the  servile  tools  of  the  corrupt  officials  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. The  most  approved  methods  of  fraud  and  bribery, 
of  smuggling  and  wholesale  deceit  have,  therefore,  been  at 
a  high  premium  in  the  land  known  as  the  Turkish  Empire, 
from  the  morning  that  the  crescent  waved  over  the  walls  of  the 
city  of  Constantine.  A  lie  is  disreputable  if  it  fails  to  deceive. 
It  has  the  double  reward  of  both  remuneration  and  promotion 
to  higher  service  if  it  prevails.  How  blessed  the  Christian 
under-secretaries  of  the  Turkish  Foreign  Office,  when  they 
return  with  the  trophies  of  the  intellectual  scalps  of  the  astute 
diplomats  whom  Europe  sends  to  Constantinople  to  fish  for 
facts    in     the     awful     maelstrom     of     falsehoods     of     Turk- 


200  [LLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

ish  diplomacy.  It  is  a  matter  of  surprise,  indeed,  that 
there  are  men  in  high  places  of  the  Christian  West  who  have 
fallen  into  the  habit  of  measuring-  the  hideous  injustice  and 
oppression  of  all  the  Christian  races  in  Turkey,  only  in  a 
balance  where  houses,  farms  and  bodies  of  men  and  women 
can  be  weighed.  We  have  been  asked :  "Oh,  the  condition  of 
the  Christian  in  Turkey  is  surely  not  intolerable,  except  for 
these  occasional  massacres,  which  European  diplomacy  ought 
to  prevent."  And  the  answer  is:  "No,  the  disasters  of  fire  and 
sword  are  nothing  compared  to  the  frightful  havoc  of  the 
souls  of  men  that  has  been  brought  with  an  iron  hand  and 
a  persistent,  unrelenting  conpulsion  upon  the  Christian  races 
in  Turkey."  Turkish  Government,  which  is  mainly  nothing 
but  a  colossal  avalanche  of  corruption  and  sensuality,  over- 
whelming the  people  of  Turkey,  cannot  be  justly  qualified 
by  any  definition  that  falls  short  of  signifying  an  absolutely 
unmitigated  curse.  I  am  reminded  here  of  the  sterling  words 
of  the  golden-tongued  prophet,  the  noble  Gladstone,  who 
stands  towering  above  British  mediocrity  in  these  dark  days 
of  ours:  "This  is  strong  language,  gentlemen,  but  language 
must  be  strong  where  the  facts  are  strong."  We  are  told  that 
the  condition  of  the  Christians  in  Turkey  might  be  worse; 
they  might  have  been  exterminated.  It  surely  is  in  order  to 
ask  here,  Where  is  the  justice  of  it,  when  there  is  help  for 
it?  What  right  has  Europe  to  attend  to  the  balance  of  power 
that  is  kept  at  the  right  level  by  piling  high  in  the  pan  of  the 
scale,  souls  of  men,  both  of  Turk  and  Christian,  laid  low  with 
the  contagion  of  corruption  and  the  rottenness  of  all  iniquity 
combined,  in  order  that  they  may  serve  as  dead-weights?  And 
the  iniquity  of  this  condition  and  the  awful  responsibility  at 
the  door  of  those  who  are  responsible  for  it  is  enhanced  by 
the  fact  that  the  Christian  "subject  races"  under  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  Turkish  Empire  have  been  striving  and  strug- 
gling through  all  these  years  of  subjection  for  a  higher  man- 
hood, nourished  by  the  abundance  of  good  works,  and  es- 
pecially at  the  touch  of  Western  civilization,  have  been  aspir- 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  201 

ing  for  their  highest  possibilities,  as  individual  men  and  as 
nations. 

This  qualification  of  the  oppression  of  the  Turkish  Gov- 
ernment is  especially  justifiable  and  unavoidable  because 

5.  An  essential  factor  in  the  character  of  the  oppression 
of  the  Turkish  Government  is  its  hopelessness.  Some  one 
wrote  upon  a  prison  wall  the  gamut  of  national  degeneration. 
It  went  down  from  wealth  and  pride  to  war  and  poverty,  and 
then  started  on  a  return  tide  of  industry  and  prosperity  back 
over  the  same  path.  If  there  is  any  correctness  in  this  itin- 
erary, it  must  have  counted  upon  rapid  transit  not  to  give  time 
for  pride  and  poverty  to  leave  an  impression  upon  the  soul  of 
the  nation. 

The  universal  accumulation  and  all-pervading  flood  of 
Turkish  oppression  has  torn  up  and  borne  down  with  it  every 
single  anchorage  and  mooring  of  virtue  and  manhood  for  the 
ship  of  state,  so  that  no  returning  tide  is  ever  possible  for  it. 
Action  and  reaction,  with  increasing  rapidity,  even  through 
the  past  fifty  years,  have  brought  disastrous  loss  in  all  direc- 
tions; so  that  Turkey  has  to-day  less  money,  less  manhood, 
less  wisdom,  less  patriotism  and  confidence  in  itself.  Only 
one  power  rises  in  the  midst  of  universal  degeneration,  and 
that  is  the  rampant  spirit,  desperate  and  malignant  oppression. 

In  the  midst  of  the  colossal  calamity  of  tens  of  thousands 
of  innocent  people  murdered  in  cold  blood,  villages  and  cities 
laid  in  ashes,  and  hundreds  and  thousands  of  men,  women  and 
children  on  the  verge  of  starvation  and  death  from  exposure 
to  the  cold  blasts  of  a  highland  winter,  civilized  nations  of 
the  world  stand  appalled  and  appear  to  consider  the  difficulty 
of  the  situation  as  unsurmountable.  But  it  is  not  so.  First, 
there  is  the  hope,  if  hope  it  may  be  called,  in  the  principle  that 
evil  destroys  itself,  while  the  good  rises  strong  with  the  power 
of  self-propagation  with  every  morning's  sun. 

The  Turk  is  destroying  himself.  His  government  of 
oppression  is  as  great  a  curse  to  himself  as  to  the  Christian; 
and  Europe,  in  permitting  and  well-nigh  supporting  that  op- 


202  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

pression,  has  been  as  great  a  criminal  against  the  Turk  as 
against  the  Christian.  What  is  wanted,  therefore,  for  the 
Christian  "subject  races"  in  Turkey,  languishing  under  the 
cruel  yoke  of  this  murderous  oppression,  is  protection.  If  the 
Christian  Governments  of  Europe  are  unwilling  as  yet  to 
separate  the  sword  and  the  Koran,  they  are  surely  in  honor 
bound  to  extend  the  protection  they  so  easily  can  extend  to 
the  Christian  population  in  the  Turkish  Empire,  and  prac- 
tically isolate  the  Mohammedan  with  his  sword  and  his  Koran. 
That  is  the  efficient  remedy  of  the  situation,  and  one  which, 
in  the  name  of  justice  and  humanity,  honor  and  civilization, 
all  believers  in  human  rights  can  demand  at  the  hands  of  those 
who  have  the  power  to  apply  it.  Pure  air  and  good  soil  are 
the  best  disinfectants.  Before  the  swelling  tide  of  Christian 
civilization,  with  its  bracing  atmosphere  of  justice  and  liberty, 
and  the  healthful  soil  of  industry  and  continued  well  doing, 
the  Mohammedan  will  be  driven  away  as  the  floating  clouds 
and  the  pestilential  miasma  are  blown  away  before  the  breath 
of  the  mighty  north  wind,  and  nature  blossoms  into  full  life 
in  the  warm  light  of  heaven. 

IV.  The  fourth  cause  of  the  horrors  to  the  Armenians 
of  Turkey  is  the  come-out  through  the  present  Sultan,  or  is 
produced  with  the  hands  of  Sultan  Hamid  II. 

The  Mohammedan  population  in  Turkey  every  year  is 
decreasing.  When  the  present  Sultan  captured  the  throne 
from  his  brother,  Sultan  Murad,  the  Turkish  Government  had 
40,000,000  people;  as  soon  as  he  girded  the  sword  of  Osman, 
he  began  the  great  battle  with  Russia,  and  after  the  Turko- 
Russian  war  he  found  himself  with  18,000,000.  Who  are  the 
losers.  Roumania,  Bulgaria,  Servia,  Montenegro,  Bosnia, 
Herzegovina,  a  part  of  Macedonia,  Cyprus  and  a  part  of  Ar- 
menia— practically  the  whole  of  Europe  was  lost  for  Turkey, 
except  Constantinople  and  the  district  Edirne  or  Adrianople. 

Turkey  is  not  an  Empire  any  more,  but  it  is  a  little  King- 
dom; rather  a  little  feudal  system,  or,  more  accurately  still,  a 
little  anarchy.     If  it  were  not  for  mutual  European  jealousy, 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  20,3 

the  Sultan  could  not  keep  his  anarchism.  Yet  many  still 
think  that  the  Ottoman  Empire  is  a  great  one,  a  powerful  Gov- 
ernment. They  look  at  the  Sultan  and  his  dominion  through 
a  magnifying  glass.  This  shows  ignorance.  The  Turks  are 
decayed  and  are  decaying.  The  sick  man  of  Turkey  is  the 
dead  man  of  Turkey,  and  ought  to  be  buried;  but  the  European 
powers  do  not  bury  him  because  there  are  precious  stones  and 
jewelry  in  the  coffin;  no  matter  how  bad  the  corpse  smells,  they 
will  endure  it. 

And  the  bad  smell  of  the  Sultan  is  killing  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  Christians;  but  the  dead  stays  where  it  is,  and 
may  stay  for  some  years;  but  the  end  will  come  before  many 
have  gone  by.  When  I  say  that  the  days  of  the  Sultan  are 
numbered,  and  the  brutal  Turkish  misrule  will  cease,  many 
Armenians  will  rejoin  "that  the  same  has  often  been  said  long 
years  since,  though  the  Empire  remains  to-day,  and  seems 
likely  to  remain."  The  fact  is,  however,  that  during  my  or 
your  own  life  more  than  half  of  it  has  gone  to  pieces,  and  the 
fragment  which  remains  will  go  to  pieces  soon.  Permit  me  to 
say  that  all  former  prophecies  have  been  mistaken  because 
those  who  made  them  have  judged  and  misjudged  the 
situation  from  an  occidental  standpoint;  I  judge  it  from 
that  of  a  native.  Who  knows  the  realities  as  only  a 
native  can?  What  can  an  English  ambassador  or  an  Ameri- 
can minister  in  Constantinople,  staying  perhaps  two  or  three 
years,  and  entertained  and  decorated  by  the  crafty  Sultan, 
know  about  the  internal  state  of  Turkey?  Having  traveled 
through  the  country,  lived  and  preached  for  years  at  a  time, 
preached  in  different  cities,  including  Constantinople,  I  can 
see  signs  of  a  break-up  that  a  foreigner  would  not  notice. 

The  reason  the  Turkish  population  does  not  increase  is 
this:  The  army  has  to  be  made  up  of  Mohammedans,  partly 
because  the  Sultan  does  not  put  arms  into  the  hands  of 
Christians,  for  obvious  reasons,  since  they  have  no  motive 
to  uphold  and  every  motive  to  fight  him,  and  partly  because 
to  be  a  soldier  in  Turkey  is  a  holy  service,  the  privilege  of 


204  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

Mohammedans  alone.  As  there  is  a  large  standing  army, 
nearly  all  the  Mohammedan  youths  have  to  become  soldiers. 
Their  service  begins  when  they  are  about  twenty  years  old. 
The  shortest  term  is  five  years;  for  many  it  is  ten;  and  even 
after  that  there  are  many  who  cannot  escape.  If  a  young 
Mohammedan  is  not  married  at  twenty,  obviously  he  cannot 
marry  until  twenty-live  anyway,  and  perhaps  thirty — very  late 
for  a  country  population.  If  he  is  married,  his  wife  is  virtu- 
ally a  widow  for  from  five  to  ten  years.  Now  the  reader  can 
see  my  drift.  With  marriages  so  late,  and  husbands  so  long 
absent,  Turkish  families  are  small.  They  do  not  make  good 
the  deaths.  And  there  is  a  still  plainer  cause:  The  soldiers 
being  very  poorly  fed,  and  constant  fighting  going  on,  ninety 
per  cent,  die  in  the  army,  and  so  never  have  any  families;  the 
flower  of  the  nation  perishes  barren.  Those  who  survive  and 
return  are  pale  and  sick,  good  for  nothing,  a  burden  to  their 
families  and  to  the  nation.  The  Armenians  have  to  support 
the  Sultan's  army,  since  they  do  not  furnish  it;  but  they  rear 
families  and  are  drowning  out  the  Turk. 

Another  cause  of  decrease  is  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca, 
where  Mohammed  was  born:  On  an  everage,  five  hundred 
thousand  pilgrims  go  there  every  year — of  course  not  all  from 
Turkey,  but  most  of  them — and  every  year  about  50,000  or 
100,000  of  them  die  of  cholera  or  some  other  disease  before 
reaching  home,  from  drinking  the  water  of  the  Holy  Well 
(Zemzorm  Sooji),  which  is  full  of  unholy  foulness.  Even 
those  who  live  and  return  home  take  that  water  to  their  fami- 
lies, and  many  of  the  latter  die  too.  Cholera  is  perpetual  in 
Turkey,  and  it  originates  at  Mecca.  When  I  was  in  Adana, 
600  at  one  time  went  on  the  pilgrimage,  and  only  50  of  them 
returned  to  their  home.  It  is  a  great  virtue  to  die  where  Mo- 
hammed was  born,  or  to  drink  that  water  and  die,  and  they 
are  going  to  him  at  a  rapid  rate.  Just  last  year,  when  the 
English  and  Russian  and  French  consuls  at  Jiddah,  the  sea- 
port of  Mecca,  established  a  quarantine  to  detain  those  com- 
ing from  Mecca,  and  bringing  cholera,  they  were  murdered  by 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  205 

the  Mohammedan  Arabs,  who  said  they  were  interfering  with 
the  sacred  religion,  and  the  Sultan  had  to  pay  the  indemnity. 

Another  cause  of  decrease  is  the  polygamy.  People  natu- 
rally think  that  marrying  more  than  one  wife  should  increase 
the  number  of  children;  but  the  facts  emphatically  prove  the 
reverse.  The  polygamous  Turks  do  not  increase  as  fast  as 
the  Christians  who  have  but  one  wife. 

Hence  the  Mohammedans  are  fast  decreasing  in  Turkey, 
and  the  Sultan  is  terrified,  and  hopes  by  killing  a  large  part  of 
the  Christians  and  forcing  the  survivors  to  accept  Moham- 
medanism, that  their  power  of  multiplication  may  be  the  boon 
of  a  Mohammedan  people.  Out  of  the  18,000,000  inhabitants 
of  Turkey,  6,000,000  are  native  Christians,  about  1,500,000 
of  them  Armenians.  This  leaves  only  12,000,000  for  the  whole 
Mohammedan  population  in  the  present  Turkish  dominion. 
The  internal  ruin  of  Turkey  is  made  by  massacres  and  forced 
conversions.  That  the  Sultan  has  been  planning  this  massacre 
ever  since  the  Turko-Russian  war  is  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that  after  the  war  he  encouraged  or  ordered  a  number  of  Mo- 
hammedan tribes — Circassians,  Georgians,  Kurds  and  Lazes 
— to  emigrate  from  Russia  to  Armenia,  confiscated  masses  of 
Christian  property,  and  gave  it  to  them,  and  directed  them  to 
reduce  the  number  of  Armenian  Christians  by  any  way  they 
saw  fit,  giving  them  full  license  to  do  what  they  would  with 
Armenians,  without  penalty.  You  know  what  that  means 
with  fierce  tribes  of  human  wild  animals,  cruel  and  foul,  and 
he  knew  what  it  meant  too,  and  intended  it  to  mean  that. 
Before  his  time  the  Christians  far  outnumbered  the  Moham- 
medans in  Armenia  proper;  but  under  his  "government" — his 
deliberate  policy  of  extermination — great  numbers  fled  the 
country,  numbers  were  killed  and  their  women  made  concu- 
bines to  Mohammedans,  and  now  the  Mohammedans  are  more 
numerous  in  Armenia  than  the  Armenian  Christians.  And  if 
the  Sultan  is  permitted  to  go  on,  he  will  kill  a  million  more; 
the  rest  will  be  "converted."  And  then  he  will  call  the  atten- 
tion of  European  powers  to  this  fact  and  say:     "See  here, 


2o6  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

you  ask  me  to  reform  Armenia;  Armenia  is  reformed.  There 
is  no  Armenia;  the  people  in  that  part  of  my  Empire  are  all 
Mohammedans,  and  they  are  satisfied  with  my  government. 
What  do  you  want  from  me?  What  right  have  you  to  interfere 
with  my  country  and  religion?"  That  is  the  plan  of  the 
Sultan;  but  that  is  bad  fortune  for  him;  and  still  it  is  the  real 
cause  of  the  eternal  ruin  of  Turkey.  Because  through  his  plan 
he  has  lost  nearly  100,000  of  noble  Armenian  people,  and  at 
the  present  time  more  than  500,000  of  Armenian  people 
have  need  only  of  bread.  They  have  nothing  in  hand.  And 
at  the  same  time  the  Sultan  has  destroyed  and  burned  many 
thousands  of  houses  and  shops  and  farms.  And  now  he  can 
not  get  the  principal  taxes  which  the  Armenians  pay  to  the 
government,  because  they  have  nothing.  They  are  not  able 
to  pay  the  poll  tax,  $2  per  head,  including  the  new-born  male 
baby,  and  tax  on  real  estate,  and  land  tax,  and  house  tax, 
namely,  50  piasters  on  1,000  of  the  value  of  the  house;  and 
Khamtchoori,  namely,  5  piasters  or  20  cents  per  head  of  sheep 
— one-eighth  of  the  value  of  the  sheep;  and  tithe  of  agricul- 
tural products.  So  that  the  Turkish  Government  has  to-day 
less  money,  less  manhood,  less  wisdom,  less  power,  less 
patriotism  and  less  confidence  in  itself,  and  has  ruined  itself. 

V.  The  fifth  cause  of  the  horrors  of  the  Armenians:  It 
has  come  out  with  the  Eastern  question;  or  I  say  that  it  is  the 
product  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin. 

It  is  quite  needless  to  remark  that  Turkey,  instead  of  do- 
ing anything  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  Armenians,  has 
done  much  to  make  it  worse  during  the  past  fifteen  years. 
The  question  now  arises,  What  have  the  powers  signatory  to 
the  Berlin  Treaty  done  to  compel  the  Sublime  Porte  "to  carry 
out  the  improvements  and  reforms"  demanded  in  the  sixty- 
first  Article?  And  what  steps  has  Great  Britain  taken  in  ad- 
dition to  discharge  the  additional  obligation  for  the  improve- 
ment of  Armenia  which  she  assumed  by  the  so-called  Cyprus 
Convention? 

We  find  that  in  November,   1879,  tne  English  Govern- 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  207 

ment,  seeing  that  matters  throughout  Asia  Minor  were  really 
going  from  bad  to  worse,  went  the  length  of  ordering  an  Eng- 
lish squadron  to  the  Archipelago  for  the  purpose  of  a  naval 
demonstration.  The  Turkish  Government  was  greatly  ex- 
cited, and  with  a  view  to  getting  the  order  countermanded, 
made  the  fairest  promises. 

But  England  was  not  the  only  power  aroused.  On  June 
ii,  1880,  an  Identical  Vote  of  the  Great  Powers  demanded  the 
execution  of  the  clauses  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  which  had  re- 
mained in  suspense.  On  the  conclusion  of  the  Identical  Vote 
a  clear  recognition  is  made  of  the  fact  that  the  interest  of 
Europe,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  requires  the 
execution  of  the  sixty-first  Article  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  and 
that  the  joint  and  incessant  action  of  the  Powers  can  alone 
bring  about  this  result. 

On  July  5th  the  Turkish  Foreign  Minister  sent  a  note 
in  reply  to  the  representatives  of  the  Powers.  "It  is  of  great 
length  and  small  real  value,  except  as  combining  in  a  remark- 
able degree  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  modern  Ot- 
toman diplomacy,  namely:  First,  great  facility  in  assimilat- 
ing the  administrative  and  constitutional  jargon  of  civilized 
countries;  second,  consummate  cunning  in  concealing  under 
deceptive  appearances  the  barbarous  reality  of  deeds  and  in- 
tentions; third,  cool  audacity  in  making  promises  which  there 
is  neither  the  power  nor  desire  to  make  good;  and  finally,  a 
paternal  and  oily  tone,  intended  to  create  the  impression  that 
the  Turkish  Government  is  the  victim  of  unjust  prejudices  and 
odious  calumnies." 

As  soon  as  the  reply  of  the  Porte  was  received,  Earl 
Granville  sent  copies  to  the  British  consuls  in  Asia  Minor, 
inviting  observation  thereon.  Eight  detailed  replies  to  this 
request  are  published  in  the  Blue  Book.  They  concur  in  a 
crushing  condemnation  of  the  Ottoman  Government. 

These  conclusions,  moderately  and  very  diffusely  ex- 
pressed in  diplomatic  phraseology,  are  reflected  in  the  col- 
lective Note  which  was  sent  on  September  11,  1880,  to  the 


2o8  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

Sublime  Porte  by  the  ambassadors  of  the  Great  Powers.  On 
October  3d,  without  making  the  slightest  references  to  cen- 
sures which  had  been  addressed  to  it,  and  even  appearing 
completely  to  ignore  the  collective  Note,  the  Porte,  assum- 
ing a  haughty  tone,  merely  notified  the  Powers  of  what  it 
intended  to  do. 

In  a  circular  of  the  12th  of  January,  1881,  Earl  Gran- 
ville tried  again  to  induce  the  other  five  powers  to  join  in 
further  representations  to  the  Sublime  Porte  on  the  subject. 
But  the  other  powers  seem  to  have  thought  that  the  diplo- 
matic comedy  had  gone  far  enough,  and  sent  evasive  answers. 
Prince  Bismarck  expressed  the  opinion  that  there  would  be 
"serious  inconvenience"  in  raising  the  Armenian  question, 
and  France  hid  behind  Germanv.  Such  action  by  the  Powers 
had  been  anticipated  by  the  British  ambassador  at  Constan- 
tinople, Mr.  Goschen,  who  had  already  written  to  Earl  Gran- 
ville. "If  thev  (the  Powers)  refuse,  or  give  only  lukewarm  sup- 
port, the  responsibility  will  not  lie  with  Her  Majesty's  Gov- 
ernment." The  whole  correspondence  was  simply  a  matter 
of  form.  I  have  condensed  this  outline  of  events  since  the 
Treatv  of  Berlin  from  Armenia,  the  Armenians,  and  the 
Treaties,  following  as  far  as  possible  the  words  of  the  writer, 
M.  G.  Rohlin-Jacquemyns,  a  high  authority  on  International 
Law.  From  1881  to  the  present  time,  almost  without  excep- 
tion, England,  on  her  part,  has  allowed  no  mention  in  her 
Blue  Books  of  the  manner  in  which  her  proteges  and  those 
of  Europe  have  been  treated.  Her  energies  have  seemed  to 
be  devoted  to  stifling  the  ever-increasing  cry  of  despair  from 
Armenia,  instead  of  attempting  her  rescue  or  relief.  The 
other  powers  are  only  less  guilty  in  proportion  as  they  have 
done  less  to  perpetuate  Ottoman  misrule,  and  have  made  less 
pretence  of  svmpathv  and  help  for  the  oppressed.  Freeman 
says  of  England:  "By  waging  a  war  on  behalf  of  the  Turk: 
by  signing  a  treatv  which  left  the  nations  of  southeastern  Eu- 
rope (and  Asia  Minor)  at  the  mercy  of  the  Turk;  by  propping 
up  the  wicked  power  of  the  Turk  in  many  ways,  we  have  done 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  209 

a  great  wrong  to  the  nations  which  are  under  his  yoke;  and 
that  wrong  which  we  have  ourselves  done  it  is  our  duty  to 
undo." 

It  is  thus  clearly  seen  that  both  the  sixty-first  Article  of 
the  Berlin  Treaty,  and  the  Cyprus  Convention  as  well,  have 
been  of  positively  no  value  in  securing  for  the  Armenians  any 
of  the  reforms  which  were  therein  recognized  as  imperatively 
called  for  and  guaranteed.  It  is  also  clear  that  the  condition 
of  Armenia,  and  of  Turkey  as  a  whole,  is  even  vastly  worse 
and  more  hopeless  than  it  was  twenty  years  ago. 

This  condition  I  further  maintain  is  in  large  measure  di- 
rectly attributable  to  those  treaties  themselves  and  to  the  atti- 
tude subsequently  assumed  by  the  Powers  which  signed  them. 
It  is  said  that  the  Armenians  have  brought  trouble  on  them- 
selves by  stirring  up  the  Turks.  I  ask  what  stirred  the  Arme- 
nians up?  It  was  primarily  the  sixty-first  Article  of  the  Treaty 
of  Berlin.  Many  a  time  has  that  precious  paragraph  been 
quoted  to  me  in  the  wilds  of  Kurdistan  by  common  Armenian 
artisans  and  ignorant  villagers.  They  had  welcomed  it  as  a 
second  evangel,  and  believed  the  word  of  England  as  they  did 
the  Gospel. 

It  was  that  Article  which  roused  them  from  the  torpor  of 
centuries.  There  is  another  sequel  to  the  Berlin  Treaty  and 
to  the  attitude  of  the  Powers,  namely:  Its  effect  on  the 
Turks  themselves.  The  natural  enmity  and  contempt  of  the 
Moslem  rulers  and  population  generally  for  the  Christian  sub- 
jects has  been  greatly  increased  by  reason  of  the  pressure 
which  foreign  powers  have  occasionally  brought  to  bear  on 
the  Turks  in  order  to  procure  relief  for  the  Christian.  To  be 
sure,  the  only  hope  of  such  relief  is  from  without.  But  the 
pressure  should  not  be  of  a  petty,  nagging  and  galling  nature. 
This  is  worse  than  nothing.  What  is  needed  is  prompt,  de- 
cisive and  final  action. 

A  recent  writer  wisely  says  that  the  Armenian  question, 
if  it  ever  be  settled  at  all,  must  be  taken  out  of  the  Turks' 
hands,  whether  he  like  it  or  not.     .     .     .     And  we  have  an 


2IO  tLLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

opportunity  now,  which  may  never  come  our  way  again,  of 
settling  a  difficulty  which  if  allowed  to  develop  much  longer, 
will  prove  more  fruitful  of  mischief  than  any  with  which  we 
have  been  confronted  for  a  generation  or  more.  Really  it  is 
the  natural  outcome  of  the  horrible  situation  in  Armenia  since 
the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  and  the  disease  is  bound  to  grow  more 
virulent  and  contagious  until  the  European  doctors  apply  vig- 
orous and  radical  treatment  to  the  "sick  man."  It  is  difficult 
to  see  how  anything  but  a  surgical  operation  can  be  helpful. 
The  knife  has  frequently  been  used  in  the  case  of  this  incur- 
able patient  during  the  present  century,  and  always  with  ex- 
cellent results,  as  for  instance  in  the  case  of  Greece,  Lebanon, 
Bulgaria.  Bosnia,  Herzegovina  and  Egypt.  A  situation  in 
many  respects  parallel  to  that  in  Armenia  existed  until  lately 
in  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina.  But  the  European  powers  never 
do  that,  though  at  the  Treatv  of  Berlin  they  destroyed  the 
nation  of  Armenia,  and  also  the  population  of  Turkey. 

VI.  The  sixth  cause  of  the  horrors  to  the  Armenians  of 
Turkey.  The  Mohammedan  population  in  Turkey  decreased 
while  the  Christian  increased.  When  the  Sultan  Abdool  Ha- 
mid  II.  was  enthroned  Turkey  had  40,000,000  population;  as 
soon  as  he  girded  the  sword  of  Osman,  he  began  the  battle 
with  Russia;  after  the  Turko-Russian  war  he  found  himself 
with  18,000,000,  Roumania,  Bulgaria,  Servia,  Montenegro, 
Bosnia,  Herzegovina,  a  part  of  Macedonia,  Cyprus  and  a  part 
of  Armenia.  Practically  the  whole  European  part  of  Turkey 
except  Constantinople  and  the  district  Edirna  or  Adrianople 
left. 

Turkey  is  not  an  empire  any  more,  but  she  is  a  small  king- 
dom, rather  a  little  feudal  system  or  more  accurately  still  a  lit- 
tle Anarchy., 

If  it  was  not  for  mutual  European  jealousy  the  Sultan 
could  not  keep  his  anarchism.  Yet  many  think  that  the  Otto- 
man Empire  is  a  great  one  and  powerful  government. 

They  look  at  the  Sultan  and  his  dominion  through  a 
magnifying  glass,  which  shows  their  ignorance. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  211 

The  Turks  were  decayed,  are  decaying  yet.  Hence  the 
Mohammedans  are  fast  decreasing  in  Turkey  and  the  Sultan 
is  terrified  but  hopes  by  killing  a  large  part  of  the  Christians, 
he  forces  the  survivors  to  accept  his  religion,  that  their  power 
of  multiplication  may  be  the  boon  of  a  Mohammedan  people. 

Out  of  the  18,000,000  inhabitants  of  Turkey,  6,000,000  are 
native  Christians,  half  of  them  are  or  rather  were  Armenians; 
which  leaves  only  12,000,000  Mohammedan  population  in  the 
present  Turkish  dominions  and  she  grows  less,  while  the  Chris- 
tians grow  more. 

The  Sultan,  a  few  years  ago,  made  the  obtaining  of  a 
marriage  certificate  compulsory  for  Armenians,  in  order  to 
decrease  them,  but  the  Turkish  authorities  found  out  that  it 
would  be  almost  impossible  to  notify  them  according  to  the 
order  of  their  Sultan,  because  it  would  cost  a  great  deal  to  es- 
tablish the  order;  on  the  other  hand,  since  many  years  there 
have  been  no  marriages  in  Armenia.  The  authorities  will  not 
give  certificates  on  any  terms  and  prevent  any  more  Chris- 
tians being  born.  The  daughters  and  young  brides  of  the 
murdered  thousands  are  made  mothers,  violated  by  the  Turks 
and  Kurds. 

The  Christians  have  been  increasing,  not  only  from  within 
but  from  without,  too.  Europeans  have  begun  to  go  where- 
ever  railroads  go,  hence  another  reason  for  massacre  and 
forced  conversion  comes  out  by  that  way. 

The  Sultan  has  been  planning  this  massacre  ever  since 
the  Turko-Russian  war  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  after  the 
war  he  encouraged  or  ordered  a  number  of  Mohammedan 
tribes — Circassians,  Georgians,  Kurds  and  Lazes — to  immi- 
grate from  Russia  to  Armenia,  confiscated  masses  of  Chris- 
tians' property  and  gave  it  to  them ;  directed  them  to  reduce  the 
number  of  Armenian  Christians  by  any  way  they  could,  at  the 
revolt  they  should  not  be  punished. 

You  know  what  it  means  with  fierce  tribes  of  human  wild 
animals,  cruel  and  fraud;  he  knew  what  it  meant  too  and  in- 
tended it  to  mean  that.     Before  his  time  the  Christians  far 


212  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

outnumbered  the  Mohammedans  in  Armenia  proper,  but  un- 
der his  government  his  deliberate  policy  of  extermination, 
great  numbers  of  them  fled  from  the  country.  Many  of  them 
were  killed  and  their  women  made  concubines  to  Mohamme- 
dans, for  this  reason  they  killed  those  who  were  between  the 
ages  of  15  and  50.  Now  the  Mohammedans  are  more  numer- 
ous in  Armenia  than  the  Armenians;  if  the  Sultan  is  permitted 
to  go  on  he  will  kill  a  million  more;  the  rest  will  be  "con- 
verted," and  then  he  will  call  the  attention  of  the  powers  to 
this  fact,  and  say:  "See  here,  you  ask  me  to  reform  Armenia, 
there  are  no  more  Armenians  here,  because  the  people  in  that 
part  of  my  empire  are  all  Mohammedans  and  they  are  satis- 
fied with  my  government. 

"What  do  you  want  of  me  anyway?  What  right  have 
you  to  interfere  with  my  country  and  religion?"  that  is  his 
proper  plan. 

When  the  Berlin  congress  was  held  the  Armenians  were 
the  majority  in  his  dominions;  the  congress  decided  on  reform 
for  it  so  that  Sultan  accepted.  But  he  gave  with  the  full  in- 
tention of  depopulating  and  converting  it,  and  then  telling  the 
powers  there  was  no  need  of  reform  there.  He  was  doing 
this  a  few  years  ago  incessantlv,  and  as  remorselesslv  as  a  fiend. 
Therefore  you  can  understand  the  cause  of  the  oppression  and 
the  persecutions  in  Turkey. 

VII.  The  seventh  cause  of  the  horrors  to  the  Armenians 
of  Turkey.  The  Christian  people  are  going  to  be  rich  and 
educated,  but  Mohammedans  generally  are  poor  and  ignor- 
ant. 

The  Turks  have  never  cared  for  money  or  education. 
They  have  always  said,  "Let  the  Christians  make  the  money, 
and  we  will  take  it  from  them  whenever  we  choose.  We  will 
be  the  rulers,  the  soldiers,  the  police;  we  will  have  the  sword 
in  our  hands.  Then  their  property  and  their  women  too  will 
be  ours  at  will,  and  we  can  force  them  to  become  Mohamme- 
dans." Such  being  their  reasoning,  they  took  good  of  their 
swords  and  their  guns,  which  were  furnished  to  them  from 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  213 

Europe  and  the  United  States.  The  Christian  peoples  be- 
lieving that  the  great  Christian  powers  would  never  permit 
the  Turks  to  wreak  their  murderous  and  shameful  will  on  them, 
did  not  risk  the  vengeance  of  the  Turks  by  secretly  buying 
weapons,  nor  train  themselves  in  the  use  of  arms.  They 
trained  their  minds,  got  education,  traveled  in  Europe  and 
this  United  States,  enlightened  themselves  in  every  way  they 
could.  They  sharpened  their  intellects  rather  than  their 
swords.  They  learned  to  make  money  also;  they  established 
all  the  business  houses  in  Turkey,  all  the  Turks  that  get  em- 
ployment in  the  cities  get  it  from  the  Christian  merchants. 
As  far  as  Turkey  has  any  finances,  they  are  in  the  hands  of 
Christians.  Go  where  you  will  in  Turkey,  seaboard  or  interior, 
all  the  money  and  education  belong  to  the  Christians.  Poverty 
and  ignorance  are  the  portion  of  the  Turks.  Ninety  per  cent 
of  the  Christians  know  how  to  read  and  write,  while  ninety 
per  cent  of  the  Turks  do  not.  Sixty  per  cent  of  the  Moham- 
medan propertv  has  been  sold  to  the  Christian  peoples  within 
twenty  years.  When  I  was  in  Turkey  during  the  last  twenty 
years,  the  Mohammedans  were  always  selling  and  the  Chris- 
tians always  buying".  One  day  a  Turk  was  going  to  sell  his 
field  to  a  Christian,  and  they  went  to  the  government  office 
to  make  the  transfer.  The  officer  in  charge  said  he  could  not 
transfer  the  property  of  a  Mohammedan  to  a  Christian.  This 
was  something  new.  "Whv  is  that?"  they  asked.  "The  gov- 
ernor forbids  it,"  said  the  officer.  "He  told  him  that  hereafter 
it  should  not  be  done."  Finallv  both  went  to  the  governor 
and  asked  him  why  he  forbade  it.  The  governor  replied: 
"Of  late  the  Christians  have  bought  up  the  fields  of  the  Mo- 
hammedans, till  they  own  the  greater  part  of  them;  if  we  let 
them  go  on  they  will  own  everything  and  the  Mohammedans 
will  be  left  without  property.  Therefore  I  forbid  it.  No  Mo- 
hammedan shall  hereafter  sell  any  property  to  a  Christian." 
He  told  the  Turk  he  might  sell  his  field  to  another  Mohamme- 
dan, but  not  to  a  Christian.  "All  right,"  said  the  Turk,  "I 
will  sell  it  to  you  then  at  the  same  price,  or  may  be  a  little 


214  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

less.  Will  you  buy  it?  because  I  need  the  money  to  support 
my  family."  "I  cannot  buy  it,"  said  the  governor.  "I -have 
no  money."  "I  know  that,"  replied  the  Turk,  "and  not  only 
you,  but  all  the  other  Mohammedans  have  no  money  either; 
they  are  all  poor.  I  cannot  find  any  Turk  who  has  the  money 
to  buy  my  field,  and  I  need  money  and  I  have  to  sell  it  to  that 
Christian."  Finally  the  governor  was  forced  to  give  permis- 
sion and  the  Christian  bought  the  field.  This  is  only  one  case, 
but  it  is  typical.  There  are  thousands  of  just  such,  and  this 
is  another  cause  which  aroused  the  jealousy  of  the  Sultan  and 
his  subordinates  to  order  the  massacre  of  the  Christians  and 
the  seizure  of  their  property.  The  Sultan  is  just  the  same. 
He  is  outwardly  very  pleasant,  very  gentlemanly,  very  hu- 
mane. He  will  promise  almost  anything,  but  he  will  do  noth- 
ing, and  he  calls  his  enraptured  guests  dogs  and  hogs  behind 
their  backs.  Who  knows  how  many  times  he  has  called  Lord 
Salisbury,  the  German  Emperor,  or  Russian  Czar,  who  are 
helping  him  to  kill  the  Christian  or  Armenians,  heathen  dogs? 
See  the  promises  of  the  Sultan  in  1878,  in  the  Berlin  Treaty, 
Article  61 : — "The  Sublime  Porte  undertakes  to  carry  out  with- 
out further  delay  the  improvements  and  reforms  demanded  by 
local  requirements  in  the  provinces  inhabited  by  the  Ar- 
menians, and  to  guarantee  their  security  against  Circassians 
and  Kurds.  It  will  periodically  make  known  the  steps  taken 
to  this  effect  to  the  powers,  who  will  superintend  their  ap- 
plication." These  promises  were  made  eighteen  or  nineteen 
years  ago,  and  the  reforms  were  to  be  made,  "without  further 
delay."  His  reforms  have  consisted  in  ordering  Circassians 
and  Kurds  to  murder  and  plunder  them.  Since  the  Berlin 
Treaty,  the  Sultan,  calling  the  European  Kings,  Emperors  and 
Princes  heathen  hogs  and  Christian  dogs,  directly  and  indi- 
rectly, he  has  killed  nearly  200,000  Armenian  Christians.  But 
still  500,000  Armenians  remain  today  who  need  only  daily 
bread.     That  was  his  reform. 

I  often  hear  it  said  in  this  country,  "Let  us  help  the  poor 
Armenians,"  and   I   feel  very  indignant.     Poor  Armenians! 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  21 5 

There  are  poor  among  the  Armenians  as  among  all  nations, 
but  the  Armenians  as  a  body  are  not  poor;  they  are  the  richest 
people  in  Turkey.  That  is  one  reason  why  they  are  plundered 
and  killed.  I  do  not  want  the  American  people  to  help  the 
Armenians  as  a  poor,  ignorant,  miserable  people,  but  because 
they  deserve  help  as  a  rich,  noble,  Christian  nation,  being 
rusted  out  by  plunder  and  murder,  for  the  benefit  of,  and  by 
means  of  a  horde  of  savages. 

After  the  last  war,  and  loss  of  the  provinces,  the  Sultan 
encouraged  the  Mohammedan  population  of  European  Turkey 
to  emigrate  to  Asiatic  Turkey,  that  they  might  not  live  under 
Christians,  and  that  they  might  increase  the  number  of  Mo- 
hammedans in  the  Asiatic  part.  The  slaughter  of  the  Ar- 
menians and  the  confiscation  of  their  property  forms  part  of 
the  scheme  to  make  room  for  them.  Before  his  time  the 
Armenians  in  Armenia  outnumbered  the  Turks;  but  the  mas- 
sacres, the  occupation  of  the  farms  and  houses  by  the  savages 
let  loose  on  them,  and  the  emigration  of  many  more  Armenians 
to  Persia  and  Russia,  have  greatly  diminished  their  numbers. 
Of  course  they  are  not  permitted  to  emigrate;  they  simply  fly. 
About  200,000  have  actually  perished.  As  to  the  forced  con- 
versions the  Sultan  does  not  care  a  particle  for  Islamism,  but 
wants  to  please  the  Muslim  and  finds  this  an  agreeable  way 
to  do  it.  As  to  the  converts  from  Islamism  to  Christianity, 
they  are  ordered  to  go  to  Constantinople  and  are  killed  there. 
Hundreds  and  thousands  of  the  Mohammedan  Turks  are 
Christians  in  secret,  but  do  not  dare  to  confess  it.  These  are 
the  ones  who  helped  and  protected  the  Armenians  during  the 
recent  atrocities.  Some  six  or  seven  years  ago  a  number  of 
such  professed  the  Christian  religion  publicly;  they  were  at 
once  ordered  to  go  to  Constantinople  and  every  one  of  them 
was  murdered  by  order  of  the  Sultan.  When  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  Christian  powers  asked  about  them  the  Sultan 
denied  that  they  had  come  there  at  all.  This  was  the  method 
of  their  assassination:  The  Sultan  has  several  pleasure  boats, 
and  in  one  of  those  boats  he  fitted  up  an  air-tight  room  with  an 


2l6  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

air-pump;  each  night  one  of  the  converts  was  taken  from 
prison  and  put  into  this  room,  the  air  was  pumped  out,  and  he 
was  suffocated;  then  an  iron  chain  was  hooked  around  him  and 
he  was  thrown  into  the  Bosphorus.  One  by  one  all  of  them 
were  so  murdered.  How  did  the  author  of  this  book  discover 
the  secret?  Well,  when  in  Constantinople  I  had  an  intimate 
friend  among  the  engineers.  The  engineer  of  this  death  boat 
told  my  friend  about  it  and  he  told  me. 

And  the  Sultan  is  not  simply  a  murderer  by  proxy  and 
official  order;  he  is  a  murderer  himself  personally.  When  in 
Constantinople  I  learned  from  several  authoritative  sources 
that  he  killed  with  his  own  revolver  several  of  his  servants  for 
no  cause  whatever,  but  merely  from  suspicion  or  rage.  He 
always  keeps  a  revolver  in  his  pocket,  and  whomever  in  the 
palace  he  suspects  he  shoots. 

VIII.  The  eighth  cause  of  the  horrors  to  the  Armenians, 
these  are  come  through  the  great  powers  of  the  European. 

During  the  last  several  years  Constantinople  has  been  the 
great  battle  ground  of  European  diplomacy.  England  was 
the  first  in  the  field.  The  occasion  of  her  action  was  the  de- 
struction of  the  Armenian  villages  and  the  massacres  of  many 
of  the  people  in  the  Kurdish  mountains  near  Sassoun,  in  Au- 
gust and  September,  1894.  The  facts  were  denied  by  the 
Turkish  government,  and  she  demanded  an  investigation  and 
such  reforms  as  should  insure  the  safety  and  well-being  of  the 
Armenians.  She  invited  Russia  and  France  to  unite  with 
her  in  securing  both  these  ends.  They  consented.  Italy  ex- 
pressed a  wish  to  join  them,  but  this  offer  was  declined.  Aus- 
tria and  Germany  were  not  invited,  and  did  not  wish  to  be,  as 
they  had  no  interest  in  Asiatic  Turkey. 

England,  France  and  Russia  worked  together  in  apparent 
harmony,  secured  a  Turkish  commission  of  investigation  and 
appointed  their  own  delegates  to  oversee  its  action.  This 
commission,  appointed  in  November,  1894,  continued  its  sit- 
tings until  July,  1895,  and  a  report  of  its  doings  has  just  been 
published  in  an  English  Blue  Book.     Meanwhile  the  English, 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  2\*J 

Russian  and  French  ambassadors  devoted  their  attention  to 
the  elaboration  of  a  scheme  of  reforms  for  the  six  provinces 
in  which  the  Armenians  were  most  numerous.  This  was 
completed  and  presented  to  the  Sultan  as  the  minimum  of  re- 
forms, which  the  three  powers  could  accept  in  harmony  and 
his  immediate  acceptance  of  them  demanded.  This  was  in 
May,  1895.  After  a  delay  of  more  than  two  weeks,  the  Sultan 
returned  an  evasive  and  unsatisfactory  answer.  Up  to  this 
point  the  three  powers  seem  to  have  worked  together  in  har- 
mony. The  other  powers,  when  appealed  to  by  the  Sultan, 
declined  to  interfere. 

The  question  then  arose  what  was  to  be  done.  Should 
these  demands  be  presented  as  an  ultimatum,  and  the  Sultan 
be  forced  to  accept  them  and  carry  them  out?  or  should  they 
be  left  where  they  were  as  so  much  good  advice,  which  he 
might  take  or  reject?  England  was  in  favor  of  coercion,  but 
Russia  and  France  opposed  it.  Just  at  this  time  the  Liberal 
government  in  England  resigned:  the  Conservatives  came  in 
with  a  practical  interregnum  until  after  the  election  in  July. 
Lord  Salisbury  took  up  the  question  as  he  found  it.  Russia 
and  France  persisted  in  their  refusal  to  admit  of  the  use  of 
force,  and  gave  this  assurance  to  the  Sultan.  Still  the  three 
powers  pressed  their  demands  diplomatically,  and  the  English 
fleet  came  into  the  vicinity  of  the  Dardanelles.  Germany  ex- 
pressed her  sympathy  with  the  Sultan,  but  still  advised  him 
to  come  to  terms  with  the  three  powers.  At  the  end  of  Sep- 
tember came  the  outbreak  at  Constantinople  and  the  massacre 
of  some  two  hundred  Armenians  in  the  streets.  Three  weeks 
later  the  Sultan  accepted,  with  some  unimportant  modifica- 
tions, the  scheme  of  reforms  presented  to  him  in  May,  1895, 
and  here  ended  the  alliance  of  England,  France  and  Russia. 
There  had  been  no  real  harmony  between  them  for  some  time. 
Russia  and  France  remained  in  it  not  to  help  the  Armenians, 
but  to  control  the  action  of  England,  and,  if  possible,  prevent 
her  sending  her  fleet  to  Constantinople,  still  there  was  no 
positive  acknowledged  break. 


2l8  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

Meanwhile  there  had  been  massacres  at  Trebezand,  Ak- 
Hissar,  Baiburt,  Giumushkhane,  Erzingan,  Diarbekr,  and 
other  places,  which  showed  that  the  situation  was  far  more 
grave  than  any  one  in  Europe  had  supposed. 

The  excitement  in  England  was  intense.  It  was  believed 
that  there  was  a  deliberate  purpose  to  exterminate  the  Armen- 
ians, and  the  English  government  believed  that  armed  in- 
tervention was  necessary  to  dethrone  the  Sultan,  or  at  least 
to  limit  his  power.  Exactly  what  happened  between  the  first 
of  October  and  the  middle  of  November  between  the  great 
powers  we  do  not  know.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  Ger- 
many proposed  to  England  to  join  the  Triple  Alliance,  in 
which  case  the  four  powers  would  go  to  Constantinople  to- 
gether. England  refused  and  Germany  resented  it,  and  threw 
all  her  influence  into  the  scale  with  Russia.  At  this  point  was 
formed  the  concert  of  the  six  powers,  which  was  simply  a 
mutual  agreement  that  no  power  should  act  independently, 
and  all  the  fleets  gathered  in  the  iEgean  to  watch  each  other. 
By  the  end  of  December  it  was  evident  that  nothing  would  be 
done,  and  one  by  one  they  stole  silently  away,  leaving  the 
Sultan  apparently  master  of  the  situation.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  all  through  the  year  the  Sultan  showed  consummate  skill 
in  this  diplomatic  conflict,  and  a  better  knowledge  of  the  situ- 
ation than  most  of  the  statesmen  concerned  in  it.  Technically 
he  won  the  battle.  England  has  been  beaten  and  humiliated 
and  the  Sultan  is  in  close  alliance  with  Russia,  France  and 
Germany,  stronger,  if  he  can  trust  his  allies,  than  ever  before. 
The  Continental  governments  have  had  a  perfectly  free  hand 
in  this  conflict,  because  there  has  been  no  popular  feeling  of 
sympathy  for  the  Armenians.  The  Continental  press  has  either 
ignored  the  massacres  or  represented  them  as  due  to  the  revo- 
lutionary spirit  of  the  Armenians.  "Any  way,"  they  have  said, 
"who  are  the  Armenians?  What  interest  have  we  in  these 
Asiatics?" 

But  can  the  Sultan  trust  his  allies?  In  fact  he  has  but 
one;  France  and   Germany  are  simply  bidding  against  one 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  210, 

another  for  the  friendships  of  Russia  and  follow  her  lead  at 
Constantinople.  The  real  victor  in  this  conflict  is  not  Turkey 
but  Russia — who  has  played  the  part  of  a  disinterested  friend 
of  the  Sultan  so  well  that  she  has  for  the  first  time  in  history 
driven  England  off  the  field  and  became  the  sole  protector  of 
the  Ottoman  Empire,  thus  realizing  the  dream  of  centuries. 
The  first  result  of  this  triumph  is  a  close  alliance  of  Russia 
with  Bulgaria,  Servia  and  Montenegro,  and  the  overthrow  of 
Austrian  influence  in  the  Balkan  peninsular  to  be  consum- 
mated this  week  at  Sofia. 

Russia  is  now  supreme  in  this  part  of  the  world  and  can 
do  what  she  pleases.  What  she  will  do  with  her  newly  ac- 
quired influence  remains  to  be  seen.  She  will  do  nothing 
for  the  Armenians,  that  is  certain.  She  has  not  professed  any 
interest  in  them.  She  has  before  her  three  possible  courses 
of  action  from  which  she  must  choose  one.  She  may  seize 
upon  the  present  opportunity,  the  best  she  has  ever  had  to 
come  to  Constantinople. 

First,  perhaps,  as  the  friend  and  support  of  the  Sultan; 
but  any  way,  come  to  stay.  The  alliance  with  the  Balkan 
states  makes  this  easy,  even  if  the  Sultan  should  be  inclined  to 
resist.  But  he  will  not.  It  is  only  necessary  to  stir  up  serious 
trouble  in  Constantinople  to  make  the  coming  appear  as  a 
friendly  act  of  a  trusted  ally.  If  no  effort  is  made  to  put  a 
stop  to  the  troubles  in  the  interior  or  here,  this  will  be  an  in- 
dication that  this  plan  is  in  favor  at  the  Russian  embassy  here, 
if  not  at  St.  Petersburg,  and  may  be  realized  soon. 

Second,  possibility  for  Russia  is  to  make  her  alliance  with 
Turkey  and  the  Balkan  states  as  agreeable  to  them  as  possible, 
to  do  her  best  to  restore  and  preserve  order,  and  with  them 
as  allies  to  guard  her  rear  and  flank,  to  attack  Austria  and  bring 
all  the  Southern  Slavs  under  her  own  rule,  or  at  least  under  her 
protection.  This  is  the  dream  of  the  Pan-Slavists,  who  are 
the  strongest  and  most  active  party  in  Russia.  This  would 
mean  a  general  European  war,  for  Germany  and  Italy  are 
bound  by  treaty  to    defend  Austria  from    any  such  attack. 


220  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

France  would  improve  her  opportunity  to  recover  Alsace  and 
Lorraine.  England  pretends  to  believe  that  the  old  Austrian 
Alliance  is  no  longer  of  any  value  to  her,  but  the  chances  are 
that  she  would  become  involved  in  such  a  war. 

The  third  possibility  for  Russia  is  to  maintain  the  present 
state  of  things  here — to  continue  to  play  with  France  and  Ger- 
many, giving  encouragement  to  both  and  securing  the  aid  of 
both  to  destroy  English  influence  in  China  and  to  gain  a  com- 
manding position  there  herself,  with  some  compensation  to 
France  and  Germany,  this  might  lead  to  a  war  with  England. 

"It  is  plain  that  Russia  cannot  do  more  than  one  of  these 
things,  and  to  decide  which  is  the  most  desirable  and  practic- 
able will  demand  the  highest  statesmanship.  My  own  opinion  is 
that  no  deliberate  choice  will  be  made,  but  that,  as  in  most 
Russian  affairs,  the  decision  will  be  left  to  chance  and  be  de- 
termined by  some  accident,  by  a  massacre  in  Constantinople, 
by  some  resentful  action  on  the  part  of  Austria  in  connection 
with  the  Balkan  states,  or  by  some  event  in  the  far  East. 
Russia  is  never  in  a  hurry.  The  Czar  has  determined  to  have 
grand  coronation  ceremonies  in  May,  and  will  hardly  be  in- 
clined to  stir  up  trouble  anywhere  before  that  time. 

The  great  powers  have  each  of  them  some  general  ideas 
of  what  they  consider  to  be  their  interests.  Each  has  a  policy 
of  some  kind.  But  now  that  the  telegraph  has  put  an  end  to 
all  independent  action  on  the  part  of  ambassadors,  and  every- 
thing is  managed  by  the  foreign  ministers,  diplomacy  has  be- 
come a  hand  to  mouth  affair.  There  is  very  little  planning 
for  the  future  or  for  the  people  of  the  East. 

Listen  to  what  the  haughty  young  ruler  of  Germany  says : 
"It  is  better  that  the  Armenians  be  killed  than  the  peace  of 
Europe  disturbed." 

The  Sultan,  to  begin  with,  has  proved  himself  to  be  one 
of  the  boldest  and  most  skilful  diplomatists  in  Europe,  and 
his  point  of  view  is  so  totally  different  from  that  of  Christian 
rulers  that  no  one  can  calculate  in  what  direction  it  will  lead 
him. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  221 

With  such  elements  of  uncertainty  in  the  methods  of 
diplomacy  and  in  the  men  who  direct  it,  it  would  be  folly  to 
venture  upon  any  predictions  for  the  future.  Things  may 
drift  on  for  months  or  years  very  much  as  they  are  today,  or 
some  unforeseen  incident  may  change  the  whole  face  of 
Europe. 

It  is  perfectly  true  that  the  government,  whose  deeds  we 
have  to  impeach,  is  a  Mohammedan  government,  and  it  is 
perfectly  true  that  the  sufferers  under  those  outrages,  under 
those  actions,  are  Christian  sufferers.  The  Mohammedan 
subjects  of  Turkey  suffer  a  great  deal,  but  what  they  suffer  is 
only  in  the  way  of  the  ordinary  excesses  and  defects  of  an  in- 
tolerably bad  government — perhaps  the  worst  on  the  face  of 
the  earth.  Well,  I  say,  the  great  powers  gave  chance  or  priv- 
ilege to  Turkish  Sultan  to  ruin  himself,  and  also  the  popula- 
tion of  Turkev. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  MASSACRE  AND    MARTYRDOM   OF    ARMENIA. 

Turkish  atrocities  in  Armenia  are  not  new  things.  The 
previous  brief  history  of  this  people,  especially  since  the  intro- 
duction of  Christianity  into  Armenia,  has  furnished  the  reader 
with  sufficient  facts  to  convince  him  that  the  real  troubles  and 
atrocities  of  this  nation  began  from  the  time  of  their  conversion 
to  Christianity,  and  has  come  down  to  the  present  time. 

What  the  Armenians  are  now  is  not  less  than  what  they 
have  suffered  in  the  fifth  century  from  the  hands  of  the  fire- 
worshipping  Persians.  Had  they  then  received  Zoroastrian- 
ism,  forced  upon  them,  they  might  have  changed  the  entire 
aspect  of  the  history  of  Western  Asia,  or  had  they  embraced 
Mohammedanism  in  the  seventh  century,  when  fanatic  mis- 
sionary soldiers  of  Mohammed  fell  upon  them,  sword  in  hand, 
and  massacred  thousands  upon  thousands  in  cold  blood,  be- 
cause they  refused  to  accept  the  sensual  religion  of  a  sensual 
and  bloody  man,  again  the  history  of  Western  Asia  might  have 
been  differently  written  from  the  present.  They  have  gone  on 
for  centuries  and  left  but  a  fraction  of  the  population  it  once 
had.  But  let  us  disregard  old  history  and  come  to  the  subject 
of  the  present,  those  that  were  begun  about  the  last  of  August, 
1894,  and  to  the  end  of  August,  1896,  which  are  horrible 
atrocities,  and  oppressions  which  had  been  done  among  the 
Armenians.  Practically  that  begins  with  Hamid  II.,  the  pres- 
ent Sultan.  He  began  his  persecutions  nearly  twenty  years 
ago,  but  on  a  small  scale.  He  had  continually  devised  new 
methods  of  getting  rid  of  the  Armenians  without  responsibility. 
Finally  he  hit  on  the  plan  of  arming  the  Kurds  and  letting 
them  loose  with  full  power  to  do  their  worst.     He  summoned 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  223 

the  Kurdish  chiefs,  hundreds  of  them,  to  Constantinople,  and 
entertained  them  in  the  palace,  armed  them  with  modern  rifles, 
and  sent  them  to  Armenia  on  their  mission.  The  pretence 
under  which  he  did  it  was  worthy  of  him;  he  called  them  the 
"Hamidish  Cavalry,"  and  pretended  that  they  were  a  sort  of 
mounted  police  who  were  to  keep  order  and  protect  the  Ar- 
menians, but  the  Armenians  knew  well  what  they  were  for. 
The  European  travellers  and  newspaper  correspondents  took 
it  all  seriously  and  talked  of  his  "civilizing-  the  Kurds,"  etc. 
Now  these  were  only  the  chiefs;  each  chief  had  a  large  follow- 
ing of  tribesmen,  so  that  about  30,000  Kurds  in  all  were  given 
arms  and  ordered  to  go  to  work  exterminating  the  Armenians. 
This  work  began  in  1891,  but  on  a  small  scale,  and  in  a 
very  craft\-  way  so  that  it  should  not  have  the  appearance  of  a 
premeditated  massacre;  then  it  was  stopped  till  about  1894, 
when  they  were  encouraged  to  begin  again,  publicly,  and  with 
full  swing.  It  was  decided  to  begin  in  Sassoun,  a  district  far 
from  the  sea,  with  no  roads  and  a  sparse  population;  if  suc- 
cessful in  escaping  the  report  there,  he  could  carry  out  the 
massacre  through  all  Armenia,  for  which  "reforms"  were  asked 
and  promised.  lie  ordered  Zeku  Pasha  to  have  his  soldiers 
ready,  and  meantime  to  have  the  "Hamidish  Cavalry,"  the 
Kurdish  chiefs  and  tribesmen  ready  to  attack  and  kill  all  the 
Armenians  in  Sassoun.  This  city  lies  between  Moosh  and 
Bitlis,  in  a  mountainous  country,  and  the  Armenians  in  Sas- 
soun are  almost  a  brave  people.  The  district  has  about  sixty 
villages  and  towns,  and  more  than  12,000  people  in  1894  had 
been  killed.  The  chief  commander.  Zeku  Pasha,  and  the  regu- 
lar soldiers  and  the  armed  Kurds,  surrounded  the  district  from 
all  sides,  and  in  about  a  month  had  slaughtered  the  entire 
population.  It  was  reported  that  Zekti  carried  on  his  breast 
an  order  from  the  Sultan  as  follows:  "Whoever  spares  man, 
woman  or  child  is  disloyal."  After  he  had  finished  his  task 
he  received  great  rewards  from  the  Sultan,  and  is  now  one  of 
his  most  esteemed  commanders.  Before  the  massacre  of  thepeo- 
ple   at   Sassoun,   the   Sultan's   order   to   Zeku   Pasha   was   to 


224  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

spare  neither  man,  woman  nor  child,  but  as  the  men  met  the 
enemy  first,  they  were  killed  first.  When  the  women's  turn 
came,  the  Turks  and  Kurds  abused  all  they  could  get  hold  of 
and  then  told  them  that  if  they  would  deny  Christ  and  accept 
Mohammedianism,and  become  their  wives,  they  should  live,  but 
if  they  refused,  every  one  of  them,  according-  to  the  Sultan's 
order,  should  be  killed.  "Now,"  said  they,  "choose  between 
Islam  and  death."  The  noble  Armenian  Christian  women 
said:  "We  are  Christians;  we  can  never  deny  Christ.  Jesus 
Christ  is  our  Saviour,  He  came  down  from  heaven  and  died 
on  the  cross  for  us;  for  that  dying  and  loving  Christ,  we  are 
Christians,  we  are  ready  to  die  for  Him  who  died  for  us,"  and 
they  added  further  "We  are  no  better  than  our  husbands  were; 
you  killed  them,  please  kill  us  too."  Then  the  horrible 
butchery  began  on  these  defenseless  women.  A  good  many  of 
them  were  slaughtered  and  a  good  many  of  them  ran  to 
different  churches,  hoping  that  perhaps  they  might  find  pro- 
tection in  some  way  in  those  holy  walls,  or  hoping  that  God  in 
his  great  mercy  might  shelter  them,  but  the  ferocious  Kurds 
and  Turkish  soldiers  pursued  them,  sword  in  hand,  violated 
them  even  in  the  churches,  and  cut  their  throats  there  until 
the  floors  were  streaming  with  blood,  then  they  poured  kero- 
sene on  the  building  and  burned  them. 

They  went  to  one  village  and  killed  every  man,  the 
women,  of  course,  knowing  that  their  fate  was  soon  to  be  worse 
than  their  husband's.  One  of  the  leading  women  named 
Shaheg,  perceiving  that  the  Turks  and  Kurds  were  getting 
ready  to  seize  and  ravish  them,  called  the  other  women  and 
said:  "Sisters,  our  husband's  are  killed,  and  you  know  what  is 
in  store  for  us  and  our  children.  Don't  let  us  fall  into  the 
hands  of  those  savage  beasts,  we  have  to  die  anyway,  and  can 
die  easier,  and  without  being  defiled  first,  and  perhaps  tor- 
tured. Let  us  go  to  the  precipice  and  jump  off."  So  saying, 
she  took  her  baby  on  her  arm,  ran  to  the  rock,  and  threw  her- 
self over.  The  others  followed  her,  and  thus  all  were  killed. 
In  the  meantime  the  Turks  captured  many  boys  and  girls,  six 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  225 

or  eight  of  ten  years  of  age,  held  them  by  an  arm  or  foot, 
and  hacked  them  to  pieces  with  their  swords.  Sometimes  they 
stood  the  boys  in  a  row  and  shot  them,  to  see  how  many  could 
be  killed  by  a  single  bullet.  They  wrenched  babies  from  their 
mothers'  arms,  cut  their  throats  while  the  mothers  shrieked 
and  pleaded,  and  boiling  them  in  kettles,  forced  the  mothers  to 
eat  the  flesh.  They  cut  open  women  about  to  become 
mothers,  tore  out  the  unborn  babes,  and  marched  triumphantly 
with  the  ghastly  trophies  on  their  spears,  crucifying  head  down- 
ward, and  pouring  boiling  water  on  them,  leaving  them  so 
till  death  came;  flaying  alive,  cutting  off  arms,  feet,  nose, 
ears  and  other  members,  and  leaving  them  to  die;  thrusting 
red-hot  wires  into  and  through  their  bodies.  They  pulled  out 
the  eyes  of  several  Christian  pastors,  saying:  "Now  dance  for 
us."  They  poured  kerosene  on  them  and  burned  them  to 
death.  They  put  a  Bible  and  a  cross  before  others  and  ordered 
them  to  first  spit  and  then  trample  on  both  and  deny  Christ, 
on  their  refusal  they  were  butchered.  The  handsomest  girls 
and  young  matrons  were  not  murdered,  but  worse;  each  one 
was  kept  as  a  spoil  of  some  Turk  or  Kurd,  who  carried  her  to 
his  house  and  made  a  slave  and  concubine  of  her. 

This  is  another  specimen  of  Mohammed  religion,  and  it 
all  happens  because  the  Armenians  are  Christians.  They 
boasted  of  it,  they  plumed  themselves  on  it,  they  praised  the 
Sultan  for  ordering  them  to  do  it,  and  he  praised  them  for  do- 
ing it  and  decorated  all  the  officers. 


THE    MASSACRE    OF    1894. 

"The  Armenians  of  Sassoun  were  fully  aware  of  the  hostile 
intention  of  the  government,  but  they  could  not  imagine  it  to 
be  one  of  utter  extermination. 

"The  Porte  had  prepared  its  plans,  Sassoun  was  doomed. 
The  Kurds  were  to  come  in  much  greater  number,  the  govern- 
ment was  to  furnish  the  provision  and  ammunition,  and  the 
regular  army  was  to  second  them  in  case  of  need. 


226  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

"The  various  tribes  received  invitations  to  take  part  in 
the  great  expedition,  and  the  chiefs,  with  their  men,  arrived 
one  after  the  other.  The  total  number  of  the  Kurds  who  took 
part  in  the  campaign  may  be  estimated  at  30,000.  The  Ar- 
menians believed  in  the  beginning  that  they  had  to  do  only 
with  the  Kurds.  They  found  out  later  that  an  Ottoman  regu- 
lar army,  with  provisions,  rifles,  cannons,  and  kerosene  oil, 
was  standing  at  the  back  of  the  Kurds. 

"The  plan  was  to  destroy  first  Shenig,  Semal,  Guellie- 
goozan,  Aliantz,  etc.,  and  then  to  proceed  toward  Dalvorig. 
The  Kurds,  notwithstanding  their  immense  numbers,  proved 
to  be  unequal  to  the  task.  The  Armenians  held  their  own, 
and  the  Kurds  got  worsted.  After  a  two  weeks'  fight  be- 
tween Kurd  and  Armenian,  the  regular  army  entered  into  an 
active  compaign.  Mountain  pieces  began  to  thunder.  The 
Armenians,  having  nearly  exhausted  their  ammunition,  took  to 
flight.  Kurd  and  Turk  pursued  them,  and  massacred  men, 
women  and  children.  The  houses  were  searched  and  then 
set  on  fire.  Certain  groups  of  men,  with  tax  receipts  in  their 
hands,  went  to  the  camp  and  asked  to  be  protected,  but  were 
slaughtered. 

"A  great  number  of  villages  outside  of  the  Dalvorig  dis- 
trict, which  had  in  no  wise  been  concerned  in  the  conflicts  of 
the  previous  years,  were  also  attacked,  to  the  unspeakable  hor- 
ror of  the  population.The  troops  climbed  up  even  the  Mount 
Antok,  where  a  multitude  of  fugitives  had  taken  refuge,  and 
massacred  them.  A  number  of  women  and  girls  were  taken  to 
the  church  of  Guelliegoozan,  and  after  being  frightfully  abused, 
were  tortured  to  death. 

"When  the  work  of  destruction  was  nearly  accomplished 
in  the  other  districts,  some  of  the  Kurdish  armies  were  set  on 
Dalvorig.  The  people  defended  themselves  against  the  over- 
whelming number  of  the  barbarians,  but  after  four  or  five  days 
they  saw  other  tribes  and  regular  Turkish  troops  marching  on 
them  from  every  side,  and  they  took  to  flight,  but  were  over- 
taken and  massacred.   The  scene  was  most  horrible.     The  en- 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  22J 

emy  took  a  special  delight  in  butchering  the  Dalvorig  people. 
An  immense  crowd  of  Turkish  and  Kurdish  soldiery  fell  upon 
the  villages,  busily  searching  the  houses  and  rooting  out  hid- 
den treasures,  and  then  setting  fire  to  the  village.  While  the 
troops  were  so  occupied,  a  number  of  the  fugitives  fled  wildly 
to  get  out  of  the  district,  and  tried  to  hide  themselves  in  caves, 
between  rocks,  or  among  bushes.  Three  days  after  the  com- 
plete destruction  of  the  Dalvorig  villages,  the  Kurds  and  the 
regular  soldiers  divided  among  themselves  the  result  of  the 
plunder,  and  the  Kurds  returned  to  their  own  mountains." 

As  my  use  of  English  is  defective,  I  take  the  liberty  here 
of  quoting  from  a  long  letter  by  E.  J.  Dillon  to  the  Contem- 
porary Review,  January,  1896. 

Dr.  Dillon  is  an  Englishman  who  was  the  special  corres- 
pondent of  the  London  "Daily  Telegraph,"  a  most  accurate 
and  conscientious  reporter,  who  writes  as  an  eye-witness: 

"If  a  detailed  description  werd  possible  of  the  horrors 
which  our  exclusive  attention  to  our  own  mistaken  interests 
let  loose  upon  Turkish  Armenians,  there  is  not  a  man  within 
the  kingdom  of  Great  Britain  whose  heart-strings  would  not 
be  touched  and  thrilled  by  the  gruesome  stories  of  which  it 
would  be  composed. 

"During  all  those  seventeen  years,  written  law,  traditional 
custom,  the  fundamental  maxims  of  human  and  divine  justice 
were  suspended  in  favor  of  a  Mohammedan  saturnalia.  The 
Christians,  by  whose  toil  and  thrift  the  empire  was  held  to- 
gether, were  despoiled,  beggared,  chained,  beaten,  and  ban- 
ished or  butchered.  First  their  movable  wealth  was  seized, 
then  their  landed  property  was  confiscated,  next  the  absolute 
necessaries  of  life  were  wrested  from  them,  and  finally  honor, 
liberty  and  life  were  taken  with  as  little  ado  as  if  these  Chris- 
tian men  and  women  were  wasps  or  mosquitoes.  Thousands  of 
Armenians  were  thrown  into  prison  by  governors  like  Tahsin 
Pasha  and  Bahri  Pasha,  and  tortured  and  terrorized  till  they 
delivered  up  the  savings  of  a  lifetime,  and  the  support  of  the 
helpless  families,  to  ruffianly  parasites.     Whole  villages  were 


228  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

attacked  in  broad  daylight  by  the  Imperial  Kurdish  cavalry 
without  pretext  or  warning,  the  male  inhabitants  turned  adrift 
or  killed,  and  their  wives  and  daughters  transformed  into  instru- 
ments to  glut  the  foul  lusts  of  these  beastial  murderers.  In  a 
few  years  the  provinces  were  decimated,  Aloghkerd,  for  in- 
stance, being  almost  entirely  'purged'  of  Armenians.  Over 
20,000  woe-stricken  wretches,  once  healthy  and  well-to-do,  fled 
to  Russia  or  Persia  in  rags  and  misery,  deformed,  diseased,  or 
dying;  on  the  way  they  were  seized  over  and  over  again  by  the 
soldiers  of  the  Sultan,  who  deprived  them  of  the  little  money 
they  possessed,  nay,  of  the  clothes  they  were  wearing,  out- 
raged the  married  women  in  the  presence  of  their  sons  and 
daughters,  deflowered  the  tender  girls  before  the  eyes  of  their 
mothers  and  brothers,  and  then  drove  them  over  the  frontier 
to  starve  and  die.  Those  who  remained  for  a  time  behind 
were  no  better  off.  Kurdish  brigands  lifted  the  last  cows  and 
goats  of  the  peasants,  carried  away  their  carpets  and  their 
valuables,  raped  their  daughters  and  dishonored  their  wives. 
Turkish  tax-gatherers  followed  these,  gleaning  what  the  bri- 
gands had  left,  and,  lest  anything  should  escape  their  avarice, 
bound  the  men,  flogged  them  till  their  bodies  were  a  bloody, 
mangled  mass,  cicatrized  the  wounds  with  red-hot  ramrods, 
plucked  out  their  beards,  hair  by  hair,  tore  the  flesh  from 
their  limbs  with  pincers,  and,  often,  even  then,  dissatisfied  with 
the  financial  results  of  their  exertions,  hung  the  men  whom 
they  had  thus  beggared  and  maltreated  from  the  rafters  of  the 
room,  and  kept  them  there  to  witness  with  burning  shame,  im- 
potent rage,  and  incipient  madness,  the  dishonoring  of  their 
wives  and  the  deflowering  of  their  daughters,  some  of  whom 
died  miserably  during  the  hellish  outrage. 

"In  accordance  with  the  plan  of  extermination,  which  has 
been  carried  out  with  such  signal  success  during  these  long 
years  of  Turkish  vigor  and  English  sluggishness,  all  those  Ar- 
menians who  possessed  money,  or  money's  worth,  were  for  a 
time  allowed  to  purchase  immunity  from  prison,  and  from  all 
that  prison  life  in  Asia  Minor  implies.     But  as 'soon  as  terror 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  220. 

and  summary  confiscation  took  the  place  of  slow  and  elaborate 
extortion,  the  gloomy  dungeons  of  Erzeroum,  Erzinghan,  Mar- 
sovan,  Hassankaleh  and  Van  were  filled  till  there  was  no  place 
to  sit  down,  and  scarcely  sufficient  standing  room.  And  this 
means  more  than  English  people  can  realize,  or  any  person 
believe  who  has  not  actually  witnessed  it.  It  would  have  been 
a  torture  for  Turkish  troopers  and  Kurdish  brigands,  but  it  was 
more  than  death  to  the  educated  school-masters,  missionaries, 
priests  and  physicians,  who  were  immured  in  these  noisome 
hot-beds  of  infection,  and  forced  to  sleep  night  after  night 
standing  on  their  feet,  leaning  against  the  foul,  reeking  corner 
of  the  wall  which  all  the  prisoners  were  compelled  to  use  as  .  .  . 
The  very  worst  class  of  Tartar  and  Kurdish  criminals  were 
turned  in  here  to  make  these  hell-chambers  more  unbearable 
to  the  Christians.  And  the  experiment  was  everywhere  suc- 
cessful. Human  hatred  and  diabolical  spite,  combined  with 
the  most  disgusting  sights,  and  sounds,  and  stenches,  with  their 
gnawing  hunger  and  their  putrid  food,  their  parching  thirst  and 
the  slimy  water,  fit  only  for  sewers,  rendering  their  agony  mad- 
dening. Yet  these  were  not  criminals  nor  alleged  criminals, 
but  upright  Christian  men,  who  were  never  even  accused  of  an 
infraction  of  the  law.  No  man  who  has  not  seen  these  prisons 
with  his  own  eyes,  and  heard  these  prisoners  with  his  own  ears, 
can  be  expected  to  conceive,  much  less  realize,  the  sufferings 
inflicted  and  endured.  The  loathsome  diseases,  whose  terrible 
ravages  were  freely  displayed;  the  still  more  loathsome  vices, 
which  were  continually  and  openly  practiced;  the  horrible  blas- 
phemies, revolting  obscenities,  and  ribald  jests  which  alter- 
nated with  cries  of  pain,  songs  of  vice,  and  prayers  to  the  un- 
seen God,  made  these  prisons,  in  some  respects,  nearly  as  bad 
as  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta,  and  in  others  infinitely  worse. 
In  one  corner  of  this  foul  fever-nest  a  man  might  be  heard 
moaning  and  groaning  with  the  pain  of  a  shattered  arm  or  leg;' 
in  another,  a  youth  is  convulsed  with  the  death  spasms  of 
cholera  or  poison;  in  the  centre,  a  knot  of  Turks,  whose  dull 
eyes  are  fired  with  bestial  lust,  surround  a  Christian  boy,  who 


23O  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

pleads  for  mercy  with  heart-harrowing  voice  while  the  human 
fiends  actually  outrage  him  to  death. 

"Into  these  prisons  venerable  old  ministers  of  religion 
were  dragged  from  their  churches,  teachers  from  their  schools, 
missionaries  from  their  meeting-houses,  physicians  and  peas- 
ants from  their  firesides.  Those  among  them  who  refused  to 
denounce  their  friends,  or  consent  to  some  atrocious  crime, 
were  subjected  to  horrible  agonies.  Many  a  one,  for  instance, 
was  put  into  a  sentry-box  bristling  with  sharp  spikes,  and 
forced  to  stand  there  motionless,  without  food  or  drink,  for 
twenty-four  and  even  thirty-six  hours,  was  revived  with  stripes 
whenever  he  fell  fainting  to  the  prickly  floor,  and  was  car- 
ried out  unconscious  at  the  end.  It  was  thus  that  hundreds 
of  Armenian  Christians,  whose  names  and  histories  are  on 
record,  suffered  for  refusing  to  sign  addresses  to  the  Sultan 
accusing  their  neighbor  and  relatives  of  high  treason.  It  was 
thus  that  Azo  was  treated  by  his  judges,  the  Turkish  officials, 
Talib  Eenffdi,  Captain  Reshid,  and  Captain  Hadji  Fehim  Agha, 
for  declining  to  swear  away  the  lives  of  the  best  men  of  his 
village.  A  whole  night  was  spent  in  torturing  him.  He  was 
first  bastinadoed  in  a  room  close  to  which  his  female  relatives 
and  friends  were  shut  up  so  that  they  could  hear  his  cries. 
Then  he  was  stripped  naked,  two  poles  extending  from  his  arm- 
pits to  his  feet  were  placed  on  each  side  of  his  body  and  tied 
tightly.  His  arms  were  next  stretched  out  horizontally  and 
poles  arranged  to  support  his  hands.  This  living  cross  was  then 
bound  to  a  pillar,  and  the  flogging  began.  The  whips  left 
livid  traces  behind.  The  wretched  man  was  unable  to  make 
the  slightest  movement  to  ease  his  pain.  His  features  alone, 
hideously  distorted,  revealed  the  anguish  he  endured.  The 
louder  he  cried,  the  more  heavily  fell  the  whip.  Over  and 
over  again  he  entreated  his  tormentors  to  put  him  out  of  pain, 
saying,  Tf  you  want  my  death  kill  me  with  a  bullet,  but  for 
God's  sake  don't  torture  me  like  this!'  His  head  alone  being 
free,  he  at  last,  maddened  by  excruciating  pain,  endeavored 
to  dash  out  his  brains  against  the  pillar,  hoping  in  this  way 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  23I 

to  end  his  agony.  But  this  consummation  was  hindered  by 
the  police.  They  questioned  him  again;  but  in  spite  of  his 
condition,  Azo  replied  as  before:  'I  cannot  defile  my  soul  with 
the  blood  of  innocent  people.  I  am  a  Christian/  Enraged  at 
his  obstinacy,  Talib  Effendi,  the  Turkish  official,  ordered  the 
application  of  other  and  more  effective  tortures.  Pincers  were 
fetched  to  pull  out  his  teeth,  but  Azo  remaining  firm,  this 
method  was  not  long  persisted  in.  Then  Talib  commanded 
his  servants  to  pluck  out  the  prisoner's  moustachios  by  the 
roots,  one  hair  at  a  time.  This  order  the  gendarmes  executed, 
with  roars  of  infernal  laughter.  But  this  treatment  proving 
equally  ineffectual,  Talib  instructed  the  men  to  cauterize  the 
unfortunate  victim's  body.  A  spit  was  heated  in  the  fire. 
Azo's  arms  were  freed  from  their  supports,  and  two  brawny 
policemen  approached,  one  on  each  side,  and  seized  him. 
Meanwhile  another  gendarme  held  to  the  middle  of  the 
wretched  man's  hand  the  glowing  spit.  While  his  flesh  was 
thus  burning,  the  victim  shouted  out  in  agony,  Tor  the  love 
of  God  kill  me  at  once!' 

"Then  the  executioners,  removing  the  red-hot  spit  from 
his  hands,  applied  it  to  his  breast,  then  to  his  back,  his  face, 
his  feet,  and  other  parts.  After  this,  they  forced  open  his 
mouth,  and  burned  his  tongue  with  red-hot  pincers.  During 
these  inhuman  operations,  Azo  fainted  several  times,  but  on 
recovering  consciousness  maintained  the  same  inflexibility  of 
purpose. 

Meanwhile,  in  the  adjoining  apartment,  a  heartrending 
scene  was  being  enacted.  The  women  and  the  children, 
terrified  by  the  groans  and  cries  of  the  tortured  man,  fainted. 
When  they  revived,  they  endeavored  to  rush  out  and  call  for 
help,  but  the  gendarmes,  stationed  at  the  door,  barred  their 
passage,  and  brutally  pushed  them  back. 

"Nights  were  passed  in  such  hellish  orgies  and  days  in  in- 
venting new  tortures  or  refining  upon  the  old,  with  an  in- 
genuity which  reveals  unimagined  strata  of  malignity  in  the 


2$2  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

human  heart.  The  results  throw  the  most  sickening  horrors 
of  the  Middle  Ages  into  the  shade.  Some  of  them  cannot  be 
described,  nor  even  hinted  at.  The  shock  to  people's  sensibili- 
ties would  be  too  terrible.  And  yet  they  were  not  merely 
described  to,  but  endured  by  men  of  education  and  refinement, 
whose  sensibilities  were  as  delicate  as  ours. 

"And  when  the  prisons  in  which  these  and  analogous  do- 
ings were  carried  on  had  no  more  room  for  new-comers,  some 
of  the  least  obnoxious  of  its  actual  inmates  were  released  for 
a  bribe,  or,  in  case  of  poverty,  were  expeditiously  poisoned  off. 

"In  the  homes  of  these  wretched  people  the  fiendish  fan- 
atics wrere  equally  active  and  equally  successful.  Family  life 
was  poisoned  at  its  very  source.  Rape  and  dishonor,  with 
nameless  accompaniments,  menaced  almost  every  girl  and  wo- 
man in  the  land.  They  could  not  stir  out  of  their  houses  in 
broad  daylight  to  visit  the  bazaars,  or  to  work  in  the  fields, 
nor  even  lie  down  at  night  in  their  own  homes,  without  fearing 
the  fall  of  that  Damocles'  sword  ever  suspended  over  their 
heads.  Tender  youth,  childhood  itself,  was  no  guarantee. 
Children  were  often  married  at  the  age  of  eleven,  even  ten, 
in  the  vain  hope  of  lessening  this  danger.  But  the  protection 
of  a  husband  proved  unavailing;  it  merely  meant  one  murder 
more,  and  one  'Christian  dog'  less.  A  bride  would  be  married 
in  church  yesterday,  and  her  body  would  be  devoured  by  the 
beasts  and  birds  of  prey  to-morrow, — a  band  of  ruffians,  often 
officials,  having  within  the  intervening  forty-eight  hours  seized 
her  and  outraged  her  to  death.  Others  would  be  abducted, 
and,  having  for  weeks  been  subjected  to  the  loathsome  lusts 
of  lawless  Kurds,  would  end  by  abjuring  their  God  and  em- 
bracing Islam;  not  from  any  vulgar  motive  of  gain,  but  to 
escape  the  burning  shame  of  returning  home  as  pariahs  and 
lepers,  to  be  shunned  by  those  near  and  dear  to  them  forever. 
Little  girls  of  five  and  six  were  frequently  forced  to  be  present 
during  these  horrible  scenes  of  lust,  and  they,  too,  were  often 
sacrificed  before  the  eyes  of  their  mothers,  who  would  have 
gladly,  madly  accepted  death,  ay,  and  damnation,  to  save  their 
tender  offspring  from  the  corroding  poison. 


AND  THE  ARMENIANS.  233 

"One  of  the  abducted  young  women  who,  having  been 
outraged  by  the  son  of  the  Deputy-Governor  of  Khnouss,  Hus- 
sein Bey,  returned,  a  pariah,  and  is  now  alone  in  the  world, 
lately  appealed  to  her  English  sisters  for  such  aid  as  a  heathen 
would  give  to  a  brute,  and  she  besought  it  in  the  name  of  our 
common  God.  Lucine  Mussegh — this  is  the  name  of  that  out- 
raged young  woman  whose  Protestant  education  gave  her, 
as  she  thought,  a  special  claim  to  act  as  a  spokes-woman  of  Ar- 
menian mothers  and  daughters — Lucine  Mussegh  besought, 
last  March,  the  women  of  England  to  obtain  for  the  women 
of  Armenia  the  'privilege'  of  living  a  pure  and  chaste  life! 
This  was  the  boon  which  she  craved — but  did  not,  could  not 
obtain.  The  interests  of  'higher  politics/  the  civilizing  mis- 
sions of  the  Christian  powers,  are,  it  seems,  incompatible  with 
it!  'For  the  love  of  the  God  whom  we  worship  in  common/ 
wrote  this  outraged,  but  still  hopeful,  Armenian  lady,  'help  us, 
Christian  sisters!  Help  us  before  it  is  too  late,  and  take  the 
thanks  of  the  mothers,  the  wives,  the  sisters,  and  the  daughters 
of  my  people,  and  with  them  the  gratitude  of  one  for  whom, 
in  spite  of  her  youth,  death  would  come  as  a  happy  release.' 

"Neither  the  Christian  sisters  nor  the  Christian  brethren 
in  England  have  seen  their  way  to  comply  with  this  strange 
request.  But  it  may  perhaps  interest  Lucine  Messegh  to  learn 
that  the  six  great  powers  of  Europe  are  quite  unanimous,  and 
are  manfully  resolved,  come  what  will,  to  shield  His  Majesty 
the  Sultan  from  harm,  to  support  his  rule,  and  to  guarantee 
his  kingdom  from  disintegration.  These  are  objects  worthy  of 
the  attention  of  the  great  powers;  as  for  the  privilege  of  lead- 
ing pure  and  chaste  lives — they  cannot  be  importuned  about 
such  private  matters. 

"In  due  time  they  began.  Over  60,000  Armenians  have 
been  butchered,  and  the  massacres  are  not  quite  ended  yet.  In 
Trebizond,  Erzeroum,  Erzinghan,  Hassankalek,  and  number- 
less other  places  the  Christians  were  crushed  like  grapes  dur- 
ing the  vintage.  The  frantic  mob,  seething  and  surging  in  the 
streets  of  the  cities,  swept  down  upon  the  defenseless  Armen- 


234  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

ians,  plundered  their  shops,  gutted  their  houses,  then  joked 
and  jested  with  the  terrified  victims,  as  cats  play  with  mice. 
As  rapid,  whirling  motion  produces  apparent  rest,  so  the  wild 
frenzy  of  those  fierce  fanatical  crowds  resulting  in  a  condition 
of  seeming  calmness,  composure,  and  gentleness,  which,  taken 
in  connection  with  the  unutterable  brutality  of  their  acts,  was 
of  a  nature  to  freeze  men's  blood  with  horror.  In  many  cases 
they  almost  caressed  their  victims,  and  actually  encouraged 
them  to  hope  while  preparing  the  instruments  of  slaughter." 

After  the  horrible  scenes  at  Sassoun,  and  other  places, 
the  Armenian  protests  shamed  the  European  powers,  who 
signed  the  treaty  of  Berlin,  to  send  a  commission  and  investi- 
gate the  atrocities.  It  found  the  stories  quite  true,  laid  the 
facts  before  the  Sultan — and  that  was  the  end  of  it.  The  Ar- 
menians asked,  "Since  you  admit  the  truth  of  these  things, 
why  do  you  not  punish  the  criminals,  stop  the  outrages,  and 
compel  the  payment  of  indemnity  to  those  who  were  outraged 
and  who  lost  their  dear  ones  and  their  property?"  The  powers 
were  deaf  to  all  this.  Then  the  Armenians  prepared  an  appeal 
{several  months  ago)  and  carried  it  to  the  Sublime  Porte,  ask- 
ing it  to  do  them  justice.  As  soon  as  the  Sultan  heard  of  this, 
he  ordered  his  soldiers  to  fire  on  them  if  they  presented  it.  The 
appeal  was  presented,  and  before  the  eyes  of  the  European  Am- 
bassadors in  Constantinople,  the  brave  soldiers  of  the  kind- 
hearted  Sultan  butchered  about  3,000  Armenian  Christians, 
several  thousand  were  imprisoned,  and  several  hundred  were 
murdered  in  the  Central  Prison.  Then  the  cold,  wise,  and 
considerate  European  powers  began  to  move  very  slowly,  not 
for  the  sake  of  the  Armenians,  but  for  their  own,  their  citi- 
zens in  Constantinople  and  elsewhere. 

They  ordered  the  Sultan  to  reform  Armenia,  brought 
their  fleets  to  the  Dardanelles  near  Constantinople  to  overawe 
him,  prepared  a  scheme  of  reform  for  Armenia,  and  made  huge 
threats  to  the  Sultan  if  he  did  not  accept  it.  But  he  knew  that 
this  pretended  concert  of  the  powers  for  Armenian  reform 
was  a  mere  trick  and  a  sham,  as  I  have  persistently  asserted  all 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  235 

along-  in  the  face  of  my  hopeful  European  and  American 
friends ;  in  fact,  the  Russian  government  at  this  very  time  was 
secretly  urging  him  to  stand  firm  and  refuse  to  accept  the  re- 
forms. He  did  so,  broached  a  scheme  of  his  own  as  a  sub- 
stitute, and  the  powers  accepted  it  as  such ;  and  then  the  whole 
thing  was  dropped,  the  Sultan  did  nothing  whatever  about  it, 
as  he  had  never  intended  to.  The  European  countries  were 
hoodwinked,  and  the  Armenian  massacres  and  conflagrations, 
plundering  and  deflowering,  went  on  at  a  greater  pace  than 
ever.  Then  the  powers  dropped  the  Armenian  question,  and 
took  up  that  of  gunboats  in  the  Bosphorus,  to  protect  their 
citizens  against  a  rising  in  Constantinople;  that  they  forced  the 
Sultan  to  permit,  because  their  own  interests  were  concerned 
in  it, — which  shows  that  they  could  have  forced  him  to  stop 
exterminating  the  Armenians  if  they  had  cared.  All  joined  in 
this  except  Germany;  the  German  Emneror  is  the  Sultan's 
friend,  and  backs  him  up.  So  now,  Germany,  Russia,  and  the 
Sultan  are  hand  in  hand,  leagued  to  prevent  any  of  the  miser- 
able victims  of  his  tyranny  from  escaping  his  clutches,  and  the 
Sultan  has  the  best  possible  encouragement  to  go  on  killing 
the  Armenians.  The  German  Emperor  says,  "Better  the  Ar- 
menians be  killed  than  have  a  war  in  Europe  and  lose  the 
lives  of  some  of  my  soldiers."  The  Czar  says,  "Time  must  be 
given  to  the  Sultan  to  reform  his  country."  Lord  Salisbury 
says,  "The  Sultan  has  promised,  and  we  must  wait  and  see 
what  he  will  do."  And  the  Sultan,  cursing  every  Emperor 
and  lord  of  them  all  as  a  set  of  Christian  hogs,  orders  the  sold- 
iers and  the  Kurds  to  go  on  with  the  good  work  in  Armenia. 
And  when  we  come  to  America,  the  Monroe  doctrine  obliges  it 
to  quarrel  over  Venezuela,  and  not  only  refuse  help  itself,  but 
give  Lord  Salisbury  a  good  excuse  to  give  none  either. 

Such  is  the  situation;  the  massacres  are  going  on  in  Ar- 
menia and  the  Armenians  in  despair  are  crying,  "O  Lord,  how 
long,  how  long!" 

Mass  meetings  are  good  as  far  as  they  go;  raising  money 
and  sending  it  to  relieve  the  Armenians  is  good  as  far  as  it 


236  tLLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

goes;  the  Red  Cross  Society  is  good  as  far  as  it  goes;  there 
are  no  objections  to  any  of  them  ;  they  are  all  noble  and  Christ- 
ian.    But,  reader,  don't  you  think  all  these  good  movements 
with  good  motives  will  hurt  the  Armenian  cause,  as  there  is 
nothing  to  aid  that  cause  directly?     All  these  mass-meetings 
merely  irritate  the  Sultan  into  carrying  on  the  murders  more 
strenuously,  since  there  is  no  force  back  of  them.     Don't  you 
think  the   Armenian  question  being  discussed  in  the  United 
States  Congress,  and  resolutions  made  without  any  action,  will 
hurt  the  Armenians  more  than  anything  else?     If  you  can't 
tread  down  the  Sultan,  don't  stir  him  up.     Miss  Clara  Barton, 
that  noble  woman,  is  in  Armenia  to  help  the  Armenians.     The 
Red  Cross  Society  is  there  and  is  feeding  the  Armenians.     I 
thank  her,  every  Armenian  thanks  her.     But  do  you  think  that 
that  will  relieve  the  situation?     Spring  has  come,  and  what 
now?     Will   the  Armenians  have  any  crops?     Did  they,   or 
could  they  sow  any  seed?     Is  there  any  farmer  left  alive?     Has 
any  farmer,  if  he  is  alive,  any  oxen  or  horses?     If  he  has,  will 
he  dare  go  to  his  field,  sow,  reap,  and  thresh?     Reader,  con- 
sider all  these  things,  and  reconsider  them,  and  I  am  sure  you 
will  come  to  the  same  conclusion  I  did  many  years  ago,  that 
Turkey  does  not  need  a  Red  Cross  Society,  not  like  the  medi- 
aeval crusades,  but  a  Protestant  American  crusade  in  the  nine- 
teenth century.     Let  me  illustrate  this  Armenian  question  by 
the  following  parable; — 

Suppose  a  lamb  is  torn  by  a  wolf,  and  the  wolf  lies  in  wait 
to  finish  it.  You  go  to  the  lamb  with  a  bundle  of  grass  in 
your  hand,  pat  it  and  say,  "Here,  poor  lamb,  I  pity  you,  I  give 
you  grass;  take  it  and  eat."  Then  you  leave  the  lamb  and  go 
away.  Do  you  think  you  have  helped  the  lamb?  As  soon  as 
you  have  gone  the  wolf  will  come  and  tear  the  lamb  to  pieces. 
If  you  are  going  to  help  the  lamb,  you  must  kill  the  wolf,  else 
no  matter  how  much  grass  you  give  the  wounded  lamb,  it  will 
do  it  no  good.  You  will  do  no  good  by  sending  Red  Cross 
societies  to  Armenia  to  feed  the  Armenians  if  you  have  not  the 
power  of  the  will  to  keep  the  wild  beasts  off.  You  will  feed 
them,  and  then  the  wolves  will  kill  them. 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  237 

Now  I  will  pass  in  review  some  of  the  leading  cities  in  Ar- 
menia where  there  have  been  great  persecutions.  Before  be- 
ginning, however,  I  must  state  that  it  is  impossible  to  give  an 
accurate  census  of  the  population  in  the  Armenian  cities,  or 
the  number  who  have  been  massacred;  for  the  Turkish  gov- 
ernment never  takes  a  correct  census,  and  never  gives  or  will 
give  the  true  number  of  those  it  has  murdered.  But  I  think 
I  can  make  a  fair  approximation  of  both.  I  will  begin  with  the 
city  of  Harpoot. 


HARPOOT  AND  ITS    VICINITY. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  important  Armenian  districts,  be- 
cause the  Armenians  outnumber  the  Mohammedans  there;  in 
the  cities  the  Turks  are  the  more  numerous,  but  there  are 
many  Armenian  town  and  villages  which  make  up.  The  dis- 
trict has  about  150,000  people,  most  of  them  Armenians,  and 
about  40,000  were  killed  in  the  recent  massacre.  Harpoot  is 
built  on  three  hills,  and  has  a  commanding  view.  Here  is  lo- 
cated a  great  American  missionary  institution,  the  Euphrates 
College;  it  has  three  departments,  the  college,  the  Theological 
Seminary,  and  the  Girls'  Seminary.  There  were  twelve  build- 
ings, eight  of  which  were  burned  in  the  outrages,  a  loss  of 
$100,000. 

Almost  all  the  outlying  villages  were  burned,  and  the 
movables  carried  off.  Women  were  made  preys,  boys  and  girls 
were  kidnapped;  the  horrors  can  never  be  described.  I  give 
here  a  few  words  from  a  private  letter,  written  to  a  Moham- 
medan Turk  to  his  brother  in  this  country.  I  have  the  letter 
in  my  possession,  written  in  the  Turkish  language.     He  says : 

"My  dear  brother:  All  the  Christian  villages  which  belong 
to  Harpoot  district,  we  plundered  and  destroyed,  and  killed 
the  inhabitants.     We  killed  them  both  with  our  swords  and 


238  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

with  our  rifles.  The  bullets  of  our  rifles  poured  upon  them 
like  rain;  none  of  them  are  left,  neither  any  dwelling  was  left, 
we  burnt  all  their  houses.  We  thank  God  that  not  a  single 
Mohammedan  was  killed.  Everywhere  throughout  Armenia 
the  Christians  were  punished  in  the  same  manner." 

Another  testimony  from  another  Mohammedan,  an  officer; 
he  says  nearly  40,000  were  killed  in  Harpoot  province,  Febru- 
ary 26,  1896: — 

"A  petition  in  behalf  of  the  Armenians  was  given  to  the 
powers  in  the  hope  of  improving  their  condition.  An  imperial 
firman  was  issued  for  carrying  out  the  reforms  suggested  by 
the  powers.  On  this  account  the  Turkish  population  was 
much  excited,  and  thought  that  an  Armenian  principality  was 
to  be  established,  and  they  began  to  show  great  hostility  to 
the  poor  Armenians,  who  had  been  obedient  to  them  and 
with  whom  they  had  lived  in  peace  for  more  than  600  years. 
To  the  anger  of  the  people  were  added  the  permission  and  help 
of  the  government:  and  so,  before  the  reforms  were  under- 
taken, the  whole  Turkish  population  was  aroused,  with  the 
evil  intent  of  obliterating  the  Armenian  name;  and  so  the 
Turks  of  the  province,  joining  with  the  neighboring  Kurdish 
tribes  by  the  thousand,  armed  with  weapons  which  are  allowed 
only  to  the  army,  and  with  the  help  and  under  the  guidance 
of  Turkish  officials,  in  an  open  manner,  in  the  daytime,  attacked 
the  Armenian  houses,  shops,  stores,  monasteries,  churches, 
schools,  and  committed  the  fearful  atrocities  set  forth  in  the 
accompanying  table.  They  killed  bishops,  priests,  teachers, 
and  common  people  with  every  kind  of  torture,  and  they  showed 
special  spite  toward  ecclesiastics  by  treating  their  bodies  with 
extra  indignity,  and  in  many  cases  they  did  not  allow  their  bod- 
ies to  be  buried.  Some  they  burned,  and  some  they  gave  as 
food  to  dogs  and  wild  beasts. 

"They  plundered  churches  and  monasteries,  and  they  took 
all  the  property  of  the  common  people,  their  flocks  and  herds, 
their  ornaments  and  their  money,  their  house  furnishings  and 
their  food,  and  even  the  clothing  of  the  men  and  women  in 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  239 

their  flight.  Then  after  plundering  them,  they  burned  many 
houses,  churches,  monasteries,  schools  and  markets,  some- 
times using  petroleum,  which  they  had  brought  with  them  to 
hasten  the  burning;  large  stone  churches  which  would  not 
burn  they  ruined  in  other  ways. 

"Priests,  laymen,  women,  and  even  small  children  were 
made  Moslems  by  force.  They  put  white  turbans  on  the  men 
and  circumcised  them  in  a  cruel  manner.  They  cut  the  hair 
of  the  women  in  bangs,  like  that  of  Moslem  women,  and  made 
them  go  through  the  Mohammedan  prayers.  Married  women 
and  girls  were  defiled,  against  the  sacred  law,  and  some  were 
married  by  force,  and  are  still  detained  in  Turkish  houses. 
Especially  in  Palu,  Severek,  Malatia,  Arabkir,  and  Choon- 
koosh,  many  women  and  girls  were  taken  to  the  soldiers'  bar- 
racks, and  dishonored.  Many,  to  escape,  threw  themselves 
into  the  Euphrates,  or  committed  suicide  in  other  ways. 

"It  is  clear  that  the  majority  of  those  killed  in  Harpoot, 
Severek,  Husenik,  Malatia,  and  Arabkir  were  killed  by  the 
soldiers,  and  also  that  the  schools  and  churches  of  the  missiona- 
ries and  Gregorians  in  the  upper  quarter  of  Harpoot  City,  to- 
gether with  the  houses,  were  set  on  fire  by  cannon  balls. 

"It  is  impossible  to  state  the  amount  of  pecuniary  loss. 
The  single  city  of  Egin  has  given  1,200  (some  say  1,500)  Turk- 
ish pounds  as  a  ransom. 

"These  events  have  occurred  for  the  reasons  I  have  men- 
tioned. I  wish  to  show  by  this  statement,  which  I  have  writ- 
ten from  love  to  humanity,  that  the  Armenians  gave  no  occa- 
sion for  these  attacks." 

The  Turk,  whose  document  is  thus  translated,  figures  that 
the  total  deaths  in  the  province  of  Harpoot  during  the  scenes, 
have  been  39,334;  the  wounded  8,000;  houses  burned,  28,562; 
and  the  number  of  the  destitutes  is  94,870. 

In  a  letter  just  received  (Jan.  18,  1896)  from  the  Rev. 
H.  N.  Barnum,  D.D.,  of  Harpoot,  Eastern  Turkey,  where  the 
property  of  the  American  Board  was  burned,  he  says  that 
reports  have  been  secured  from  176  villages  in  the  vicinity  of 


24O  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

Harpoot.  These  villages  contained  15,400  houses  belonging 
to  Christians.  Of  this  number  7,054  have  been  burned,  and 
15,845  persons  are  reported  killed.  Dr.  Barnum  adds:  "The 
reality.  I  fear,  will  prove  to  be  much  greater." 

The  statistics  of  the  last  outrages  will  never  be  accurately 
known,  but  the  most  careful  figures  thus  far  received,  the  par- 
tial, are  as  told.  In  the  table  below  I  will  try  to  show  the  popu- 
lation of  the  ten  provinces  and  the  houses  and  shops  plundered 
and  destroyed  or  burned  in  the  ten  provinces,  namely:  Erze- 
rim,  Hitlis.  Diarbekr,  Van,  Harpoot,  Sivas,  Trebizond,  An- 
gora, Adana.  and  Aleppo: 

Total  population  of  the  ten  provinces 5,898,300 

Armenians  in  the  ten  provinces 1,192,000 

Total  houses  and  shops  plundered  and  destroyed  or 

burned  in  the  provinces 62,661 

Number  killed  in  the  ten  provinces 83,895 

Number  forced  to  accept  Islam  in  the  ten  provinces  40,950 

Number  left  entirely  destitute  in  the  ten  provinces.  .  315,060 

Number  of  the  widow  women 65,650 

Number  of  Armenian  Orphans 55,ooo 

It  thus  appears  that  about  nine-tenths  of  the  outrages  oc- 
curred within  the  first  six  provinces  to  which  the  reform  scheme 
applied.  The  Sultan  professed  to  accept  the  reforms  on  Octo- 
ber 1 6th,  1896,  and  the  above  figures  show  with  what  energy, 
zeal  and  good  faith  he  carried  them  out;  for  most  of  the  work 
was  done  within  two  months  of  that  date.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  Sultan  deserves  credit  for  these  "reforms,"  for 
he  claims  it  himself,  assuring  Lord  Salisbury,  in  a  letter  made 
public  at  his  request,  that  they  were  being  executed  under  his 
personal  direction.  Kurds  and  soldiers  have  constantly  de- 
clared that  they  were  simply  obeying  the  Sultan's  orders  and 
that  this  was  the  case  is  clear  from  the  fact  that  no  one  has 
been  punished  .for  disobedience,  not  even  the  officials  in  whose 
presence  the  American  colony   at  Harpoot  was  bombarded, 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  24.I 

plundered  and  burnt  out  of  home  i8o<;  in  Nov.  It  has  repeat- 
edly been  preached  that  these  outbreaks  were  carefully  pre- 
arranged by  disarming  Christians  and  by  prescribing  limits 
as  to  place,  time,  duration  and  method  of  execution. 

It  is  from  this  spirit,  the  book  of  Koran,  that  the  blood  of 
many  innocent  persons  has  been  shed  in  Turkey;  it  is  from 
this  spirit  that  children  and  delicate  women  have  been  ill 
treated  and  butchered. 

Let  it  be  fully  understood  throughout  the  Christian  world 
that  the  massacre  is  a  religious  demand  which  the  Turks  have 
to  complete. 

As  a  Christian  tries  to  be  faithful  to  Christ  and  his  teach- 
ings, so  the  Turks  are  trying  to  be  faithful  to  their  prophet  and 
his  teachings  also. 

They  go  to  the  mosques  and  pray  "Allah  (God)  help  me  or 
help  us,  strengthen  our  hands  and  sharpen  our  swords  to  kill 
the  infidel  Armenians."  Then  they  come  out  from  the  mosques 
and  begin  to  kill,  plunder,  outrage  and  commit  every  sort  of 
indescribable  atrocities  on  the  peaceable  and  defenceless  Arme- 
nians ;  but  it  will  grow  worse  than  ever  since  so  called  Christian 
nations  have  given  the  Sultan  public  notice  that  they  will  not 
interfere  with  him.  Do  not  be  deceived  by  his  lying  reports. 
There  were  no  Armenian  rebellions;  they  could  not  rebel;  they 
did  not  kill  the  Turks;  they  never  dreamed  of  such  madness. 
This  awful  fate  has  fallen  on  them  purely  and  simply  for  being 
Christians. 

This  is  the  Fetva  or  secret  sentence  which  comes  out  from 
the  Shaikhull  Islam :  If  the  Giavoure  or  Kaffirs,  which  means 
blasphemers,  do  not  accept  the  true  religion  they  should  be 
killed  and  their  property  be  appropriated  by  the  true  believers. 

Of  course  they  cannot  help  it;  it  is  their  faith,  a  religion  for 
barbarians. 

Their  teachers  or  Hojas  go  to  the  mosques  and  preach  to 
them  this  way:  "You  Mohammedans  love  your  fellow  believ- 
ers, but  hate  and  kill  all  others;  they  are  Giavoures,  heathen 
dogs  and  hogs."  To  kill  a  Christian  is  just  the  same  as  to  kill 
a  hog  for  them. 


-'4-'  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

The  Hojas  say  that  first  you  ask  them  to  accept  our  faith ; 
if  they  do  you  must  not  harm  them,  but  if  they  will  not,  kill 
them,  because  they  have  no  right  to  live  in  a  Mohammedan 
country.  It  is  a  great  virtue  the  more  Christians  you  kill,  and 
the  greater  reward  you  will  have  from  Allah  (or  God)  and  his 
prophet  Mohammed. 

The  Turks  slaughter  Armenians  to  earn  this  reward;  there 
is  no  nationality  like  Turks  which  ever  respects  or  gratify  the 
females. 

If  a  woman  falls  into  their  hands  she  need  not  hope  to 
keep  her  virtue  and  religion;  they  violate  her  first,  then  force 
her  to  become  a  Mohammedan  after  all. 

In  the  years  of  1894  and  1895  in  a  good  many  places  in 
Armenia  or  Turkey,  a  number  of  able-bodied  young  Armenians 
were  captured,  bound,  covered  with  brushwood  and  burned 
alive,  but  thousands  surrendered  themselves  and  plead  for 
mercy.  Many  of  them  were  shot  down  on  the  spot  and  the  re- 
mainder were  dispatched  with  sword  and  bayonet. 

Lots  of  women,  variously  estimated  from  60  to  160,  were 
locked  up  in  a  church  and  the  soldiers  were  commanded  to  let 
loose,  kill  them.  Most  of  them  were  outraged  to  death  in  a 
different  way. 

Once,  when  a  number  of  young  women  were  in  one 
place,  locked  up,  the  Turks  advised  them  that  if  they  were  car- 
ried off  to  the  harems  or  their  houses  they  could  get  along 
with  them  very  nicely,  but  if  you  refused  you  would  be  killed) 
so  they  did. 

Children  were  placed  in  a  row,  one  behind  another,  and  a 
bullet  fired  through  the  line,  apparently  to  see  how  many  could 
be  shot  down  with  one  bullet;  houses  were  surrounded  by  sol- 
diers, set  on  fire  and  the  inmates  forced  back  into  the  flames 
at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  as  they  tried  to  escape.  A  number 
of  men  of  one  village,  during  their  escape,  took  the  women  and 
children,  about  five  hundred  in  number,  and  placed  them  in  a 
sort  of  grotto  in  a  ravine;  after  several  days  the  soldiers  found 
them  and  butchered  those  who  had  not  died  of  hunger. 


AND  THE   ARMENIANS.  243 

Fifty  young  women  and  girls  were  selected  from  one  vil- 
lage and  placed  in  a  church,  when  the  soldiers  were  ordered  to 
do  with  them  as  they  liked,  after  which  they  were  butchered. 

In  another  village  fifty  choice  women  were  set  aside 
and  urged  to  change  their  faith  and  become  Hauums  (or  htdy) 
in  Turkish  harems,  but  they  indignantly  refused  to  deny  Christ, 
preferring  the  fate  of  their  fathers  and  husbands.  People  were 
crowded  into  the  houses,  which  were  then  set  on  fire;  in  one 
instance  a  little  boy  ran  out  of  the  flames,  but  was  caught  on  a 
bayonet  and  thrown  back.  Children  were  frequently  held  up 
by  the  hair  and  cut  in  two,  or  had  their  jaws  torn  apart. 
Women  with  children  were  ripped  open,  and  older  children 
were  pulled  apart  by  their  legs. 

A  handsome  recently  wedded  couple  fled  to  a  hill  top;  sol- 
diers followed  and  told  them  that  they  were  pretty  and  would 
be  spared  if  they  would  accept  Islamism,  but  the  thought  of 
the  horrible  death  they  knew  would  follow  did  not  prevent  them 
from  confessing  Christ. 


the 

If  the  Turks  and  the  Kurds  only  killed  and  killed  clean, 
there  would  be  less  indignation  in  the  heart  of  mankind.  But 
they,  of  all  savages,  least  hearken  to  the  well-known  prayer — 

"Spare  us  the  inexpiable  wrong,  the  unutterable  shame 

That  turns  the  coward's  heart  to  steel,  the  sluggard's  blood  to 

flames." 

In  all  the  atrocities  of  the  Armenian  charnel-house  nothing 
can  for  a  moment  vie  in  hideous  and  unspeakable  horror  the 
continuous  and  never-ending  string  of  narratives  of  the  foulest 
of  outrages  on  women  and  children. 

It  is  assumed  too  often  that  the  continual  liability  to  viola- 
tion with  impunity  of  generation  after  generation  would  have 
somewhat  deadened  the  sense, of  female  honour  in  the  unfortu- 
nate Armenians.  Dr.  Dillon,  however,  confirming  many  other 
witnesses,  says  that  this  is  by  no  means  the  case. 


244  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

I  have  seen  and  conversed  with  hundreds  and  hundreds  of 
Armenian  women  lately,  and  I  have  found  no  signs  of  the  tem- 
pering process.  Whatever  vices  or  virtues  may  be  predicated 
of  Armenian  women,  chastity  must  be  numbered  among  their 
essential  characteristics.  They  carry  it  to  an  incredible  ex- 
treme. In  many  places  an  Armenian  woman  never  speaks  to 
any  man  but  her  husband,  unless  the  latter  is  present.  Even 
to  her  nearest  and  dearest  male  relatives  and  connections  she 
has  nothing  to  say;  and  her  purity,  in  the  slums  of  Erzeroum 
as  in  the  valleys  of  Sassoum,  is  above  suspicion.  Yet  these  are 
the  people  who  are  being  continually  outraged  by  Kurds  and 
Turks,  oftentimes  until  death  releases  them. 

"English  people  have  not  even  a  remote  notion  of  the  extent 
to  which  young  married  women  and  girls  are  outraged  all  over 
Armenia  by  Turkish  soldiers,  imperial  Zaptiehs,  Kurdish  offi- 
cers and  brigands; — and  outraged  with  such  accompaniments 
of  nameless  brutality  that  their  agonies  often  culminate  in  a 
horrible  death.  Girls  of  eleven  and  twelve — nay,  of  nine — are 
torn  from  their  families  and  outraged  in  this  way  by  a  band 
of  'men'  whose  names  are  known,  and  whose  deeds  are  ap- 
proved by  the  representatives  of  law  and  order.  Indeed,  these 
representatives  are  themselves  the  monsters,  the  bestial  poison 
of  whose  loathsome  passion  is  destroying  'the  subtle,  pure,  and 
innocent  spirit  of  life/ 

"Rape,  violation,  outrages  that  have  no  name,  and  whose 
authors  should  have  no  mercy,  are  become  the  commonplaces 
of  daily  life  in  Armenia.  And  the  Turkish  'gentleman'  smiles 
approval.  I  have  myself,  says  Dr.  Dillon,  collected  over  300 
of  these  cases,  and  I  have  heard  of  countless  others. 

"The  following  case  is  one  in  which  I  took  a  very  lively  in- 
terest because  I  am  well  acquainted  with  the  victim  and  her 
family.  Her  name  is  Lucine  Mussegh,  her  native  village 
Khnoossaberd,  Born  in  1878,  Lucine  was  sent  at  an  early  age 
Armenian  Missionary  school  at  Erzeroum,  where  she  was 
taught  the  doctrines  of  evangelical  Christianity,  her  father, 
Aghadjan  Kemalian,  having  always  manifested  a  strong  sym- 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  245 

pathy  for  Protestantism.  Armenian  parents  are  continually 
scheming  for  the  purpose  of  shielding  their  daughters  from 
violation  by  the  Turks  and  Kurds.  Lucine,  to  escape  this  dan- 
ger, was  taken  from  school  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  and  wedded 
to  a  boy  of  her  own  age,  Milikean  by  name,  and  having  lived 
some  time  with  him  under  his  father's  roof,  was  sent  to  the 
Protestant  school  once  more.  One  night,  during  her  hus- 
band's absence  from  home,  she  was  seized  by  some  men, 
dragged  by  the  hair,  gagged,  and  taken  to  the  house  of  Hussni 
Bey.  This  man  is  the  son  of  the  Deputy-Governor  of  the  place. 
He  dishonored  the  young  woman  and  sent  her  home  next  day, 
but  her  husband  refused  to  receive  her  any  more,  and  she  is 
now  friendless  and  alone  in  the  world. 

"Lucine's  father  presented  a  complaint  to  the  colonel  of  the 
Hamidehs,  and  a  petition  to  the  parish  priest.  The  Metropoli- 
tan Archbishop  of  Erzeroum  likewise  took  the  matter  in  hand, 
and  appealed  to  the  Governor-General  of  the  Vilayet,  and  to 
the  Court  Khnouss.  But  all  to  no  purpose.  Lucine  is  now  a 
pariah.  In  her  Appeal  to  the  Women  of  England,  which  is 
too  long  and  too  naive  to  find  a  place  here,  Lucine  says: 

We  suffered  in  patience  when  our  corn,  butter,  and  honey 
were  seized,  and  we  were  left  poor  and  hungry ;  we  bowed  our 
heads  in  sorrowful  resignation  when  our  kith  and  kin  were  cut 
down  by  the  Kurds  and  Turks.  Are  we  also  to  be  silent  and 
submissive  now  that  our  race  is  being  poisoned  at  its  source? 
Now  that  child-mothers  and  baby-daughters  are  being  defiled 
and  brutalised  by  savages?  Say,  Christian  sisters,  is  there  in 
truth  no  remedy?  ....  We  ask  for  no  revenge,  for  no 
privileges;  we  ask  only  that  ....  but  need  I  be  more 
explicit  to  English  matrons,  wives  and  sisters?  .  .  .  .  Al- 
though we  are  Armenians  we  are  Christians;  I  was  brought 
up  in  a  Protestant  school,  as  you  were ;  I  drew  my  moral  susten- 
ance from  the  Bible,  as  you  did;  I  was  taught  to  feel  and  think, 
as  you  were  .  .  .  For  the  love  of  God,  then,  whom  we 
worship  in  common,  help  us,  Christian  sisters,  before  it  is  too 


246  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

late,  and  take  the  thanks  of  the  motherss,  wives,  sisters,  and 
daughters  of  my  people,  and  with  them  the  gratitude  of  one 
for  whom,  in  spite  of  her  youth,  death  would  come  as  a  happy 
release. 

(Signed)       LUCINE  MUSSEGH. 

"I  have  also  received  a  piteous  appeal  to  women  of  Eng- 
land from  some  hundreds  of  Armenian  women  of  the  District 
of  Khnouss,  begging  as  an  inestimable  favor  to  be  shielded 
from  the  brutal  treatment  to  which  they  are  all  subjected.  It 
is  needless  to  publish  it  here.  Written  appeals  are  seldom  very 
forcible.  If  the  reader  had  seen  the  wretched  women  them- 
selves, as  I  saw  them,  and  heard  them  tell  their  gruesome  tales 
in  the  simplest  of  words,  punctuated  by  sobs  and  groans,  em- 
phasised by  misery  and  squalor,  they  would  be  in  a  condition  to 
form  some  idea  of  the  'state  of  things  in  Armenia,  which  in  the 
good  old  times  of  theocracy  would  have  brought  down  con- 
suming fire  from  heaven.  In  the  village  of  Begli  Akhmed, 
for  example,  I  met  a  woman  of  about  twenty-eight  clothed 
in  ragged  pieces  of  dirty  carpets,  with  a  pale  emaciated  boy 
of  twelve,  suffering  from  a  terrible  cough,  who  looked  like  a 
typhus  patient  aged  only  six  or  seven.  I  asked  her  to  tell  her 
story,  and  this  is  what  she  said: 

My  name  is  Atlass  Manookian;  I  come  from  the  village 
of  Khrt  (Khnouss  District).  We  were  very  well  off,  but  the 
Kurds  took  away  everything  we  had.  Everything,  Effendi; 
still  my  poor  husband  worked  for  me  and  the  child  here,  though 
thev  told  us  to  go.  One  day  I  was  bringing  bread  to  my  hus- 
band in  the  field,  they  struck  me  on  the  head  and  dishonored 
me.     That  was  in  the  daytime.     .     .     . 

'  Tt  was  at  noon,  mother,  when  father  used  to  eat  his 
bread,  that  they  did  that  to  you,'  broke  in  the  ghost  of  a  child. 
I  never  in  my  life  witnessed  anything  more  horrible  than  the 
sight  of  those  two  friendless,  hopeless  wretches,  as  they  stood 
there  trembling  in  the  cold,  the  dying  child  thus  simply  bearing 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  247 

witness  that  his  mother  was  dishonored  in  the  fields  by  a  num- 
ber of  neighboring  Kurds.  She  then  went  on :  'I  complained 
to  the  head  officer,  Sheikh  Moorad,  but  the  Binbashi  beat  me 
cruelly  about  the  head  and  back,  and  knocked  me  down. 
Then,  last  spring,  when  my  husband  was  sowing  corn,  Ali 
Mahmed  came  up  and  killed  him.'  'With  an  axe,  mother,' 
said  the  boy.  'We  are  now  alone  in  the  world,  wandering  and 
begging,  and  nobody  knows  us,'  said  the  woman.  Having 
given  her  some  coins,  I  hurried  away,  vainly  striving  to  shake 
off  the  horrible  impression  which  clung  to  me,  like  a  hideous 
ghost,  for  weeks  afterwards. 

"Let  me  close  this  awful  chapter  with  one  despairing  cry. 
It  was  written  November  14,  1894,  to  an  Armenian  missionary 
by  one  of  his  old  pupils: — 

"  'I  implore  and  earnestly  entreat  that  you  will  remember 
one  of  your  former  pupils,  and  hear  my  cry  for  sympathy  and 
protection.  I  have  been  outraged.  Oh,  woe  is  me,  eternal 
pain  and  sorrow  to  my  young  heart!  Evil  disposed  and  law- 
less men  have  robbed  me  of  the  bloom  and  beauty  of  my  wifely 

purity.     It  was  H Bey,  the  son  of  the  Kaimakam  (the  local 

Turkish  Governor  residing  in  the  village).  It  was  in  the  even- 
ing between  six  and  seven  o'clock.  I  was  engaged  in  my 
household  work.  I  stepped  outside  the  door,  when  I  sud- 
denly found  myself  in  the  grasp  of  four  men.  They  smothered 
my  cries  and  threatened  my  life,  and  by  force  carried  me  off  to 
a  strange  house.  Oh  what  black  hours  were  those  till  the 
sweet  light  of  the  sun  once  more  arose !  Though  this  is  writ- 
ten with  ink,  believe  me,  it  is  written  in  blood  and  tears.' " 

By  the  few  examples  here  given,  the  true  nature  of  the 
Mohammedanism  may  be  closely  ascertained,  that  religion 
as  you  may  observe  gives  many  opportunities  for  the  corrup- 
tion of  the  morality  of  mankind,  and  with  it  endangers  the 
property  of  the  people. 

A  private  letter  from  a  young  lady  to  her  dear  brother  of 
Caesarea,  Asia  Minor,  in  Turkey,  Dec.  31,  1895: 

My  Dear  Brother:     Before  the  horrible  massacre,  every- 


248  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

body  was  in  fear;  several  families  would  gather  in  one  house 
to  proteet  themselves,  and  all  Armenian  stores  were  closed  for 
twenty  days;  but  as  the  government  guaranteed  that  there 
would  be  no  danger,  and  told  everybody  to  attend  to  their 
business,  and  open  their  shops,  they  did  so.  It  was  the  16th 
of  November,  on  Saturday,  that  all  peoples  opened  their  shops 
again,  and  the  transaction  of  business  commenced  in  full  force. 
At  2  p.  m..  at  the  doors  of  market,  bugles  sounded,  and  sev- 
eral hundred  bashr-bozook  (irregular  soldiers),  were  at  the 
doors  of  the  bazaar,  every  one  of  them  having  in  his  hands 
stilettos,  swords,  yataghans,  guns,  revolvers,  hammers,  axes, 
hatchets,  sickles,  poinards,  daggers,  and  heavy  sticks  with 
twenty  or  thirty  nails  fastened  to  them. 

Then  they  blew  horns,  the  signal  to  start  the  massacre, 
cries  were  heard,  first  kill,  cut  and  butcher  the  Gianours;  the 
property  already  belongs  to  us;  cut,  cut.  kill,  don't  care  plun- 
dering. Then  they  rushed  into  the  market  and  slaughtered 
all  they  met.  Oh;  you  can  imagine  what  became  of  those 
who  fell  into  the  hands  of  those  brutes.  Alas!  alas!  how  un- 
speakable! They  butchered  them  like  cattle;  cut  their  heads 
off  like  onions.  Some  tried  to  run,  but  could  not;  others 
tried  to  escape  but  were  brought  back  and  killed.  The  bazaar 
was  full  of  dead  bodies.  People  hid  themselves  among  the 
goods,  and  in  the  cellars  and  were  saved;  ten  or  fifteen  days 
after,  people  were  found  there  in  a  starving  condition,  not  hav- 
ing dared  to  come  out.  They  killed  at  once  in  a  factory  thirty- 
eight  men;  in  Kayanjilar  everybody  was  slain.  After  the  mas- 
sacre was  over  the  Governor,  Yerrick  Pasha,  sent  soldiers 
around,  and  they  discovered  many  people  hiding  and  took 
them  back  to  the  Government  house,  (Saray),  examined  their 
pockets  for  revolvers  and  knives,  and  not  finding  any  the  gov- 
ernor sent  them  to  their  homes. 

They  plundered  the  bazaar  of  all  its  goods,  and  then,  oh,  my 
Lord ;  they  rushed  upon  the  house,  and  upon  women  in  Turk- 
ish baths.  I  believe  you  don't  know  the  meaning  of  Turkish 
bath.     In  Turkey,  as  a  rule,  twice,  or  once  a  week,  and  gen- 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  249 

erally  on  Saturday,  good  many  Armenian  women  go  to  Turk- 
ish baths  to  wash  themselves.  On  that  Saturday  in  Turkish 
baths  more  than  four  hundred  Armenian  women,  young  ladies 
and  girls.  At  meantime  a  good  many  bashi-bazook  came  in 
Turkish  baths.  ...  I  cannot  describe  this;  when  I  think 
of  it,  my  whole  body  trembles.  The  people  in  the  baths  were 
killed  and  wounded,  and  they  carried  away  the  young  ladies 
and  girls;  every  one  was  killed  that  they  came  in  contact  with. 
The  houses  were  plundered  of  all  their  contents  and  buildings 
were  torn  down,  and  houses  full  of  people  were  burned.  Oh, 
how  terrible.  What  I  say  you  cannot  imagine  to  be  so;  you 
mav  think  it  is  a  dream,  because  your  eyes  have  not  seen  nor 
your  ears  heard  the  screams,  waitings,  weeping,  shrieks  and 
groaning,  that  even  your  forefathers  never  heard,  but  of  which 
our  ears  are  full  day  and  night. 

Some  of  the  kidnapped  girls  were  brought  back  by  the 
Government,  but  most  of  them  were  wounded  and  half  dead 
from  fright.  Thank  God,  we  are  safe,  but  we  are  not  better 
than  those  girls.  We  are  lost,  lost,  ruined,  no  work,  no  busi- 
ness, every  one  of  us  looking  for  safety.  Happy,  happy  be 
you  that  are  in  America  and  have  nothing  to  fear.  They  say 
to  me,  you  ought  to  be  with  your  brother  in  America  now.  If 
the  way  was  opened  everybody  would  like  to  go. 

If  you  are  not  in  good  circumstances  there,  you  must 
feel  satisfied  and  give  thanks  to  God  always.  We  also  have  to 
thank  God  that  we  are  still  living.  It  is  one  month  now  that 
we  have  not  been  able  to  go  out  in  the  street.  O,  Lord,  help 
us.  Oh ;  what  shall  we  come  to?  Oh  my  dear  brother,  if  you 
can  help  us  in  any  way  please  do  so;  make  lectures,  get  some 
help;  everybody  is  dying  of  hunger.  I  cannot  write  any 
longer;  we  leave  all  to  your  conscience.  I  do  not  write  this 
letter  only  to  you,  but  to  all.  Do  whatever  you  can  for  us;  we 
are  in  a  terrible  condition.  I  thank  you,  my  brother,  for  the 
money  that  you  sent  to  me;  thank  you  very  much. 

Your  Sister. 


25O  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

A  letter  has  been  written  by  the  missionary  lady  from  Oarfa, 
Jan.  28,  1896: 

Dear  Friend:  Your  only  remaining  brother  sends  you  a 
letter,  but  no  letters  can  begin  to  explain  the  sad  state  of  this 
city.  The  massacre  of  Dec.  28  and  29  has  left  all  homes  ex- 
cept Catholics  and  Syrians  entirely  empty  of  any  comforts. 
Many  families  have  not  one  bed  even;  all  cooking  utensils, 
clothing,  bedding,  carpets,  etc.,  were  taken.  Most  have  a 
little  Zakhere  left,  though  some  have  not  that.  We  are  feed- 
ing about  175  of  the  most  needy,  and  more  will  come  to  us 
even-  week.  The  loss  by  death  is  between  4,000  and  5,000. 
,Our  pastor,  the  Rev.  Hogop  Abauhayatian,  Dr.  Kivore,  and 
brother  Haratoun,  Sarkis  varjebed  chubukian  and  b  rother  and 
son,  Garabed,  Raumian,  Habbangan  Avedis,  and  brother  Sar- 
kis, old  sexton  Garabed  and  other  sexton,  ogas,  Magar  Kivore 
and  brother  Bogos  and  Berber  Manofa  and  two  sons,Eskiyi- 
yan  Morderas,  Zarman  Boamian's  three  sons,  are  some  of  the 
dead.  In  all,  our  Protestant  dead  are  115.  Some  of  our  peo- 
ple perished  in  the  Gregarian  Church,  where  1,500  or  2,000 
went  for  refuge  Saturday  night,  and  on  Sunday  were  murdered 
or  burned,  very  few  escaping. 

It  was  the  most  awful  of  all  the  terrible  events  of  those 
two  days.  Thank  God,  two  hundred  and  forty  were  saved  hy 
coming  to  me.  Sixty  of  them  were  men.  I  could  not  keep 
the  men  in  my  house  or  yard,  because  it  was  forbidden  by  the 
guards,  but  hid  them  elsewhere,  and  fed  them  for  three  or  four 
days.  The  government  carefully  protected  me,  and  killed  as 
many  of  my  friends  as  possible.  We  have  our  house  and  all 
the  schoolrooms  full  of  the  wounded  and  the  most  forlorn. 

Our  Oarfa  redeaf  leave  tomorrow;  we  have  now  soldiers 
now  for  guard  of  the  city;  and  Christians  epecially.  Oarfa  re- 
deafs  have  been  poor  guards,  and  but  for  them  the  awful  work 
would  not  have  been  accomplished.  The  pastor  of  Severek, 
the  Rev.  Marderas,  the  Rev.  Vartan  remains  alive  in  Adaya- 
man.  Both  in  Severek  and  Adayaman  the  number  of  the 
killed  was  very  great.     In  Birijik,  about  200  were  killed,  and 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  251 

all  remaining  have  become  Moslems;  they  have  been  circum- 
'cised. 

In  Aintab  about  300  were  killed,  847  shops  plundered, 
and  417  houses,  and  about  400  wounded. 

During  our  first  disturbance,  six  to  seven  hundred  shops 
were  plundered,  and  about  175  houses.  Then  the  Chris- 
tians used  arms  to  defend  themselves.  Since  then  all  arms 
have  been  taken  by  the  government  from  the  Christians,  and 
the  leaders  were  forced  to  sign  a  paper  stating  the  city  as  "in 
peace  and  harmony,  thanks  to  the  rulers/'  etc.;  twenty-five 
signed  it,  and  now  almost  all  of  those  have  been  killed. 

Our  pastor  signed  for  Protestants. 

Only  two  of  the  Gregarian  priests  remain,  and  they  are 
wounded.  The  bishop  is  alive,  but  feeble  at  1  does  not  work 
publicly  now.  Their  state  is  very  bad.  Wre  desire  your 
prayers,  and  the  aid  of  all  who  can  give  us  I.  lp  by  money  at 
this  time.  Sincerely  your  Friend. 

Before  the  coming  end  of  this  book,  I  would  like  to  say 
a  few  words  about  the  same  especial  martyrs. 

During  the  wholesale  massacre  of  the  Christian  Armen- 
ians, a  good  many  thousands,  the  brave  and  faithful  Christian 
men  and  women,  they  are  never  deny  their  Saviour  of  Jesus 
Christ  before  the  swords  of  their  enemies,  most  of  them  they 
are  bravely  confessed  their  Christian  faith  and  their  martyrs, 
as  the  follows. 

Ourfa,  Dec.  29,  1895.  During  the  massacre  on  that  day, 
while  every  Armenian  was  running  with  their  life,  six  of  them 
entered  the  house  of  Rev.  Absuhayatian  of  that  city  to  find 
shelter  there.  In  the  meantime,  fifteen  Mohammedans,  well 
armed,  came  to  the  house  of  Rev.  Absuhayatian  and  asked  him 
to  come  out.  When  he  did  so  they  told  him  how  well  they 
thought  of  him  and  for  such  a  good  man  as  he  is  it  would  be 
advisable  to  accept  the  religion  of  Mussalman,  in  answer  to  this 
Rev.  Absuhaytian  said:  "No,  I  cannot  do  that.  I  cannot  deny 
my  Redeemer."  The  Mohammedans  repeated  their  request 
three  times  and  each  time  the  answer  they  received  was  the 
same,  and  the  last  time  Rev.  Absuhayatian  said:     "I  cannot 


252  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

give  up  my  faith,  and  would  rather  die  a  Christian."  As  he 
finished  these  last  words  a  bullet  went  through  his  left  breast, 
fired  by  one  of  the  Mohammedans,  who  was  standing  some 
distance  from  the  victim.  Following  the  shooting,  others 
struck  him  and  stabbed  him  with  their  daggers  and  swords  un- 
til the  victim  was  utterly  helpless.  Then  they  went  inside  of 
the  house,  found  the  six  men  hidden  there,  these  they  killed  and 
wounded  to  death,  also  Rev.  Absuhayatian,  about  twelve  hours 
afterward,  died  a  martyr  for  Christianity. 

Severek,  Nov.  23,  1895.  While  Rev.  Mardiros  was  in  his 
house  a  band  of  Kurds  and  Mohammedans  walked  into  the 
house  and  requested  that  he  should  accept  the  religion  of  Islam 
(or  Islamism),  Rev.  Mardiros  said,  "No,  cannot  comply  with 
your  request,  nor  can  I  deny  my  Lord  and  my  Saviour."  At 
this  time  they  took  one  of  his  sons  and  killed  him  there;  then 
they  asked  him  (Rev.  Mardiros)  if  he  was  ready  to  accept  Islam- 
ism, for  if  he  did  his  life  will  be  spared.  To  this  they  received 
again  a  negative  answer,  and  they  brought  the  second  son  and 
murdered  him  there  in  the  presence  of  his  father;  and  Rev. 
Mardiros  was  asked  the  third  time  if  he  was  now  willing  to 
accept  the  right  religion.  They  received  the  same  negative 
answer.  Then  a  Kurd  struck  him  with  his  sword,  and  the 
poor  sufferer  raised  his  voice  and  said,  "I  am  a  Christian.  My 
name  is  Mardiros,  and  I  have  received  this  name  while  I  was 
being  baptized  to  be  a  martyr  for  Christ.  At  that  moment 
some  one  of  the  crowd  struck  his  head  with  an  axe,  and  the 
victim  fell  to  the  ground  dead. 

Our  fa,  3,500  attendants  in  an  Armenian  church  were 
burnt  to  ashes  by  kerosene  oil. 

Beridjik,  a  Christian  young  man,  was  repeatedly  re- 
quested to  turn  to  Islamism,  but  he  persistently  refused  to 
do  so,  saying,  "I  am  a  Christian,  and  I  cannot  accept  your 
false  prophet."  His  head  was  put  into  a  large  stone  mortar 
and  was  smashed  to  death. 

Marash,  an  elderly  gentleman  of  my  acquaintance,  ad- 
vised his  two  sons  while  they  were  being  murdered  before  his 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  253 

eyes  that  through  fear  of  death  they  should  not  deny  Christ; 
it  is  better  for  them  to  die  and  be  martyrs  for  Christ;  and  they 
were  made  martyrs,  and  the  father  also  was  killed,  to  follow 
his  sons.  And  again,  my  brother-in-law  in  Marash,  with  his 
two  sons,  were  invited  to  accept  Mohammedanism.  On  re- 
fusal of  such  request  all  three  were  killed.  They  soon  found 
his  son-in-law  and  killed  him  also.  The  bloodthirsty  mob 
found  twenty-six  persons  hidden  in  one  house.  After  killing 
them  all,  they  tied  ropes  around  their  feet  and  dragged  the 
dead  bodies  through  the  streets  as  they  do  the  body  of  an 
animal. 

These  are  only  a  few  of  the  true  happenings  of  every- 
day massacres  in  Armenia,  and  tens  of  thousands  of  such 
bloody  works  can  be  gathered.  While  at  this  time  the  blood 
of  these  martyrs  is  crying  out  to  us  of  the  cruel  injustice  to 
them,  their  spirits  beneath  the  altar  of  the  Heavenly  Throne 
are  crying  still  louder  and  saying,  "O,  Lord!  when  wilt  Thou 
revenge  our  enemies?"  Truly,  the  number  of  martyrs  of  Chris- 
tianity in  Armenia  and  in  the  entire  Ottoman  Empire  during 
1894  and  1895  has  been  greater  than  has  been  known  to  other 
nations. 

Sivas,  Nov.  12,  1895. — Rev.  Gorabed  Kilyjian  died  a 
martyr,  his  life  being  offered  him  three  times  if  he  would  deny 
Christ.  He  bore  noble  testimony  before  many  witnesses,  then 
fell  in  their  presence,  sealing  his  faith  and  testimony  with  his 
blood. 

The  nature  of  the  pacification  which  may  be  expected  if 
Turkey  is  left  free  to  carry  out  its  schemes  for  these  provinces 
may  be  judged  from  the  following  list  of  educated  and  influ- 
ential ministers,  who  have  been  put  to  death  for  refusing  to 
embrace  Mohammedanism.  In  every  case  the  offer  of  life  on 
these  terms  was  made;  in  several  cases  time  was  allowed  for 
consideration  of  the  proposal;  and  in  each  case  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ  was  the  sole  crime  charged  against  the  victim. 

1.  Rev.  Krikor,  pastor  at  Ichme,  killed  Nov.  6,  1895. 

2.  Rev.  Krikor  Tamzarien. 


254  ILLUSTRATED     ARMENIA 

3.  Rev.  Boghos  Atlasian,  killed  November  13. 

4.  Rev.  Mardiros  Siraganian,  of  Abakir,  killed  Nov.  13. 

5.  Rev.  Garabed  Kilijjian  of  Sivas,  killed  Nov.  12. 

6.  Rev.  Air.  Stepan,  of  the  Anglican  Church  at  Marash, 
killed  Nov.  18. 

7.  The  preacher  of  the  village  of  Hajin,  killed  at  Marash, 
Nov.  18. 

8.  Rev.  Krikor  Baghdasarian,  retired  preacher  at  Har- 
poot,  Nov.  18. 

9.  Retired  preacher  at  Divrik,  killed  Nov.  8. 

10.  Rev.  Garabed  Resseian,  pastor  at  Cherwouk,  Nov. 

12.  Pastor  at  Cutteroul,  Nov.  6. 

13.  Preacher  at  Cutteroul,  Nov.  6. 

14.  Rev.    Sarkis   Narkashjian,    pastor   at   Chounkoush, 
Nov.  14. 

15.  The  pastor  of  the  church  at  Severek,  November. 

16.  The  pastor  of  the  church  at  Adiyaman. 

17.  Rev.    Hohannes    Hachadorian,    pastor    at    Kilisse, 
Nov.  7. 

18.  The  preacher  at  Karabesh,  near  Diarbekr,  Nov.  7. 

19.  Rev.  Mardiros  Tarzian,  pastor  at  Keserik,  near  Har- 
poot,  November. 


THE    BLOT    ON   THIS   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

Dear  reader,  do  you  know  how  many  thousand  Chris- 
tians have  been  killed  during  this  nineteenth  century?  It 
stands  about  as  follows: 

1822,  Greeks,  especially  in  the  Island  of  Sco 55,ooo 

1850,  Nestorians  and  Armenians,  in  Kurdistan 12,000 

i860,  Maronites  and  Syrians,  Lebanon  and  Damascus  11,000 

1876,  Bulgarians  in  Bulgaria 13,500 

1894,  Armenians,  in  Armenia  and  Sassoun 12,000 

1895-6,  Armenians,  in  Constantinople  and  all  over  in 

Asia  Minor,  more  than 71,895 


AND     THE     ARMENIANS.  255 

1896  and  1897,  Greeks,  in  Island  of  Crete  and  Greece, 
at  the  last  war,  over 55,ooo 


The  total  number 240,395 

In  a  word  the  nineteenth  century  has  been  a  bloody  and 
blotted  era  for  the  eastern  Christians,  because  up  to  this  date 
over  240,000  men  and  women  and  innocent  children  have  been 
killed  and  butchered  in  cold  blood  by  the  brutal  and  immoral  Is- 
lamism.  Therefore  many  thousands  of  such  bloody  words 
can  be  gathered.  While  at  this  date  the  blood  of  those  martyrs 
is  crying  out  for  the  cruel  injustice  to  them  and  to  the  orphans 
and  widows  left  behind  them,  their  spirits  also,  beneath  the 
altar  of  the  Heavenly  Throne,  are  crying  still  louder  and 
saying,  aO  Lord,  when  wilt  thou  revenge  our  enemies."  Truly 
the  number  of  martyrs  of  Christianity  in  Armenia  and  of  the 
entire  Ottoman  Empire  during  the  19th  century  has  been 
greater  than  has  been  known  to  other  nations. 


TABULAR   VIEW   OF  THE  ARMENIAN   MASSACRES 

From   1894  to  1896,  26  of  August. 


\  wii:  OF  town 
\NI»  THE    VILLAGES 


mi  and  Villi 
Constantinople     ■    . 
Ak-Hisaar      .... 
Trebizond       .... 
Raiburt  and  Villages 
Gurnushane  and  \  ill's 
Erzlngian  and  Villagei 
IV i  1 1 1  ^  and  Villa-- 
Har|toot  and  Vicinities 
sivas  and  Vicinities 
Pain  and  Villages 
Diarbekr  and  Vicinities 
Albostan    . 
Eerzernni  ami  Vicinities 

Onrfa  and  Villages 

Kara.  Eessav 

Maltia 

Marash  and  Village; 
Aintab  and  Kilis  . 
Gnoroon    .... 
Daranda    .... 
Ashody       .... 
Arabkir     .... 
Arjrana      .... 
Soverok     ... 
Birejeck,  Jibin  and  Oral 
Aduyaman  and  Basny 
Azizia  and  Gamerac 
Divrigy  and  Villages 
Baknur Madanv     .     . 
Mush     ...... 

Tokat     

Amasia 

Yozgat  and  Villages 
Egun 


Zaytoon.  Gaban 
Furnnz,  Doongala 
Sbivilgy,  Nuorpat 
Gaoksoom.  Shardara* 

and  Hajine  .  .  . 
Adana  and  Vicinity  . 
Csesarea  and  Neegda 
And  some  other  places 


DATE  OF 
M  kSSA<  RE. 


Sept.  30 
••     Oci 


NUMBER 
KILLED. 


|-.\    WHOM    DoNK 


More  than  12,000 

3,000 

160 

si  11 1 

1,200 

150 


Oct. 


•• 


30 
Nov.  3 
Dec.  28 
Oct.  -'•"- 
Nov.    6 

is 
18 

in 


Dec.  19 
Nov.  l'.i 
17 
13 
13 
12 
"       12 


1896  agal 

n. 

[1895 

;.-  nov 

26 

lfi 

Soldiers.  Kurds  and  Turk ■ 

Police,  Sottas  and  Turks. 

Moslem  villagers. 

Soldiers.  I.:i/.es  and  TurUs 

l.'/.es  and  Turks 

Turks  and  Kurds. 
'..(inn    Soldiers  and  Turks. 
1,200    Soldiers.  Kurds  and  Turk- 
1. 

I..M111  Soldiers  and  Turks. 

4,000  Soldiers.  Kurds  and  Turk* 
:;.;,ii(i  ••  "  " 

150  Turks  and  Kurds. 

3,000  Soldiers  and  Turks. 

3,500    Kurds.  Turks  and  Soldiers 


500 
•_'.-.() 

1.200 

1,150 

:;.:>'  '0 
750 
125 

2,000 
150 
251 1 
;.i  ii » 

1,300 
BOO 
250 
200 
150 
350 
250 

1,575 
250 

2,250 


Circassians  and  Turki 

Turks  and  Kurds. 


Soldiers  and  Turks. 
Kurds  and  Turks. 


Kurds.  Circassians,  Turks 


KedifS  and  Turks. 
Kurds  and  Turks. 


3,000  Soldiers  and  Turks. 

800  Soldiers,  Of  sliar  Turks. 

150  Circassians  and  Turks. 
1,200 

150  Turks 


During  the  three  years  from  1894  to  1899,26  of  August,  the  total  number  of  the 

massacres  of  the  Christian  Armenians  in  Asia  Minor  and  Turkey.  83,895. 

The  statistics  of  the  last  outrages  will  never  be  accurately  known,  but  by  the  most 
careful  figures  thus  far  received,  the  partial  are  as  told.  In  the  table  below  1  wish  to 
show  the  i  opnlation  of  the  ten  provinces,  and  the  houses  and  shops. are  plundered, 
and  destroyed  <  r  burned  in  the  ten  provinces,  namely:  Erzerum,  Wilis,  Marhekr, 
Van,  Harpoot,  8iva»,  Trebizond,  Angora,  Adana,  and  Aleppo. 


FOURTEEN  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


JUN  5     1956     T 


MAY  3  0 1956  LU 


3Him'59CSg 


-,    ^' 


5u-r(\ji   \  '5^ 


r?..- 


OJ 


MAY26  19B& 


^m% 


m 


Lu 


Jj'64-H>fl 


nF.C.2  7  .--'71  2ff 


j  *mia  Qet2o?u 


'^h 


LD  21-100m-2,'55 
(B139s22)476 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


